Don't Rain on my Parade
Yes, I saw Barbra Streisand in concert last night.It was great. Seriously...great.
I know I know...don't judge me. The tickets were free...but truth be told, if I could have afforded tickets, I would have bought them. Whether you like her or not, you cannot deny that she has talent. Most of the time it requires that you ignore her personal life and her politics and the things she says and just listen to her sing (which, lets face it, is the same thing you have to do with Britney Spears...and she doesn't even have a fraction of the talent of Babs) And it must be said that she definitely gives you your money's worth - ignore the fact that I paid nothing. I was the exception.
From start to finish, the whole show is 3 hours. Seriously...three hours. This includes a 20 minute intermission and some solo performances by Il Divo (which I will go into later). So she is on stage and performing for at least 2 full hours. And she doesn't force you to listen to random songs...she goes right to it. She knows you want to hear 'People' and 'The Way We Were' and she gives it to you. Full force.
And let's be serious, folks...the woman can sing. Still. It means that she has spent the last 42 years saying things like, 'my body is a temple...treat it as such' but who cares. As long as she can still belt out a tune, its all worth it. And 42 years. Wow. Over 4 decades of performing...that is impressive.
And she is 64 years old. The SAME age as Paul McCartney, isn't that weird? You would never think to lump them in the same generation, but yet...the numbers don't lie....unless one of them DID lie about their age, which is totally possible. But let's assume they didn't.
Anyway, so in addition to her singing, there were other aspects of the show. She did a whole Q&A with the audience - which included an 'impromptu' performance of a song she hasn't sung in so long. I put 'impromptu' in quotes, because I don't believe that a single moment was out of her control at any point. She also did a little sketch where a Pres Bush impersonator comes out and they banter. It was stupid and unnecessary. But oh well...that's what you get.
And then there was Il Divo. A group I had never heard of before last night. And a group I will most likely forget by Christmas. They sounded great...but had no presence on stage. When barbra is on stage, she commands your attention, you can't take your eyes off of her. When Il Divo had the stage to themselves, my friend took a nap...seriously. She closed her eyes. Doesn't bode well for them. The only thing I will say is that they are four very good looking guys. So I just watched them with binoculars and decided which one I liked best. I don;t know their names, but the French guy is the most my type.
Other than that, it was cool to see the celebs in the audience. Rosie O'Donnell (of course), Katie Couric, and Regis Philbin were all there...and then I also found out at intermission that Bill and Hillary Clinton were both there as well. So needless to say, I did some serious celeb stalking with my binoculars.
Ok. So hopefully I have surpassed all judegements, but I know that isn't possible. When it comes to Streisand, you are either a lover or a hater. There is no grey area. While I say she is undeniably talented, I understand that some people dislike her. And for sure, she charges way too much for her concert tickets...but I will tell you now, MSG was almost completely sold out.
People, who pay that much for tickets, think they are the luckiest people in the world!!!
posted by carrie @ 11:15 AM
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