Babs Says Goodbye to Concerts With Stellar Retrospective
September 28, 2000 -- NEW YORK — In a perfect world Barbara Streisand would have concluded her limited stage career with one last, free blowout in Central Park — the most fitting way to thank the minions who have worshipped her for nearly four decades.
But as she closes the performing aspect of her career, there is no such magnanimity. Rather, Streisand offered four obscenely priced farewell concerts — two at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last week and two at Madison Square Garden this week, which cost fans $375 for a so-so seat upstairs and a mind-numbing $2,500 down front.
Yet on Wednesday, at the first of the New York shows, there was not a hint of grumbling about the record-breaking cost or the $90 sweatshirts on sale at the many souvenir stands. Rather the mood was one of joy, admiration, and much obvious emotion for many fans. Even the big celebrities on hand (and there were many) seemed awestruck.
And who could blame them? Aside from how beautifully Streisand sounded and how comfortably she interacted with fans, the show itself was an absolute history lesson in modern popular music. While her commercial successes have mostly been about show tunes, lite-rock dabblings, and pop love songs, she can be a stellar torch singer whose jazzy, bluesy arrangements on this night, were unequaled.
For years her real life mirrored her movies with storied relationships that always ended badly and dramatically. The angst was good for her music, but not so great otherwise.
The Streisand onstage now has finally landed the right guy — the gorgeous and nice James Brolin — along with an obvious serenity that now defines her. In turn, these peaceful, happy shows are a world apart from her previous limited engagements, with their underlying tension and high anxiety. How unfortunate then that she has chosen to stop just as she attains a completely new approach to life.
There is, of course, no middle ground with Streisand. She is either loved or loathed. But even those who squirm at her adult-contemporary schmaltz and obsessive perfectionism can't argue with her stats: The Oscar-Grammy-Emmy-Tony-winning Streisand is among the longest-running, best-selling musical artists of all time, with a voice that is clearly among the most important of the last century.
In an evening as intimate as it was grand, she avoided all the standard pop gimmicks like big lights, costume changes, and lots of running around onstage — opting for a classy cabaret-style retrospective that would have worked just as well in any nightclub.
She began at the beginning, with songs from her own early club days. Classics such as "Cry Me a River" and "Lover, Come Back to Me" were perfectly understated — delivered with the kind of raw clarity that just isn't heard inside arenas. There were, of course, numbers from the movies and Broadway, too — witty recasts of "As Time Goes By," "On a Clear Day," and several numbers from Funny Girl, the Broadway musical that put her on the map.
Even her most overplayed soundtrack songs, "The Way We Were" and "Evergreen," which have become little more than aural wallpaper after millions of radio spins, were renewed through inventive phrasing and timing.
With actors portraying her mother and an early record producer — and with the gifted Lauren Frost as Young Barbra — there were several amusing skits that neatly tied her past to present. A couple of well done video tricks included one that placed the live Streisand on-screen alongside Frank Sinatra so they could sing "I've Got a Crush on You" together.
Of course much of Streisand's post-'70s chart career has been defined by duets. Singing with Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Neil Diamond, Barry Gibb, Donna Summer, and even Don Johnson, has been pretty much the only way she's been able crack the Top 40. Onstage she relegated such songs to a few short video moments but curiously excluded the Summer number, 1979's "Enough Is Enough," which was the very best of these pop pairings.
Closing with "Happy Days Are Here Again," "Somewhere" (from West Side Story), "My Man," and "People," she received one rousing ovation after another, then reemerged at the end of it all for four curtain calls.
These farewell shows were nearly identical to the New Year's concerts that she performed in Las Vegas nine months ago, right down to the scripted patter.
Just how scripted? Well, her stage was flanked by four flat-screen TelePrompTers, while three larger, Karaoke-style jumbo-prompters hovered over the crowd in plain view, projecting all the lyrics, and even the between-song banter.
Yes, we know, she is legendary for her stage fright and avoided live performances for nearly 30 years before returning to concerts in 1994. But seven, obviously placed prompters?
It was an odd transgression considering just how at-home and confident Streisand appeared to be on this stage, pointing out celebrities in the audience (Penny Marshall, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chevy Chase, etc.), bickering with loud fans ("I never did take requests!"), and prancing happily outside her comfort zone during the gaudy but wholly enjoyable disco theme song from The Main Event.
With all this fun and serious music onstage, it really is strange to think of it as over. But Streisand appears decisive. She says she no longer wants to diet into skinny costumes, nor does she want the pressure: "I want what I think everyone wants — more time to just live life."
Yes, indeed, marriage to that hunk has mellowed her in ways her fans probably never thought possible. And here's one more example: When the stage-left speakers hissed and popped, when the crowd got a bit unruly while shouting out its love, when she missed a dance step — there were no tantrums, no scolding for the sound man. Rather, there was just a smile and now, finally, the ability to let it go and move on.