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“Simply Barbra”
October 22, 2009
Birdland – October 5
If right this minute they held a blindfold test to decide whether it was Barbra Streisand singing or Steven Brinbert, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say the most devoted Streisand crazo wouldn’t be able to tell the difference—and that includes James Brolin.
I’m basing my statement on the version of the constantly evolving “Simply Barbra” show that the longtime Erasmus High graduate’s foremost impersonator presented at Birdland this week. Until this astonishing outing, I’d always felt that Brinberg only intermittently sounded like Streisand. In my estimation, the strongest part of Brinberg’s long-running act was the patter—always updated to reflect the latest happenings in the exalted Babs’s artistic and private life.
It seemed to me that once Brinberg got 10 or 15 minutes into his mimicry, the illusion would take hold and suspension of tonal disbelief would finally occur. At that point in the development of his Streisand character, he sounded enough like her to get away with it, and his satirical take on her stage Streisand was worth the admission price.
No longer the case. Now he sounds so much like Streisand note for note, tasteful melisma for tasteful melisma, upward and downward scoop for upward and downward scoop, tremolo for tremolo, that attending one of his relaxed and understated concert shows is tantamount to attending one of hers. Moreover, to do so, nobody has to win a lottery or be Bill Clinton or Donna Karan or Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
Needless to say to anyone aware of how scrupulous Brinberg is about researching his subject, the lad in Streisand bob (and nose sans bob) made a few digs about the recent Village Vanguard gig, the most notable when favorably comparing Birdland’s wide spaces to the VV’s cramped quarters. As La Streisand does, he never went for the big yuk but kept comments to the light-hearted, sometimes self-deprecatory throwaway line.
Unsurprisingly and reassuringly, he paid homage to songs that appear on the real yenta’s—er, Yentl’s—new “Love is the Answer” CD. “Make Someone Happy” (Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Jule Styne)—from which the album title is borrowed—got the nod, of course.
But he didn’t confine himself to the Diana Krall-produced CD or even to songs regularly associated with Streisand. He sang “Kids” (Lee Adams-Charles Strouse) with a few new lyrics, such as a reference to Facebook, and an interpolated remark about her own offspring, Jason Gould. Brinberg aficionados probably know he’s also gotten his hands on a The Way We Were ballad that was turned down for the flick and replaced by the eventual Oscar-winner; he did it with total Streisand commitment.
Every once in a while, Brinberg exaggerated one of Streisand’s signature vocal forays, which suddenly introduced a soupçon of satire. For a fleeing second the mood cracked, and the act became something else, something slightly less impressive. But for the most part, he wasn’t spoofing. He was replicating—as James Beaman did when he conjured Marlene Dietrich at her 1954 Café de Paris opening. The result, as with Beaman, is one artist slipping completely into the persona of another. You could call it legitimate identity theft.
Wow!
