Steven Brinberg performed in Simply Barbra at Live at Zedel, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
After his Christmas Barbra celebration at Leicester Square and his Funny Lady tribute, it was natural Steven Brinberg, Barbra Streisand impersonator extraordinaire, would celebrate the 50 years of the movie version of Hello, Dolly!
By saying: “When I did the movie in 2969 they said I was too young and now I’m too… busy!” Brinberg gently mocks Streisand’s legendary ego.
He does the same when the star is told Dolly is an ensemble piece with other characters singing. This is a reference, of course, to the Funny Girl movie where, strangely enough, her co-stars’ singing was reduced to the minimum, and Yentl in which only she was allowed to sing despite the presence of Mandy Patinkin as her leading man!
After opening with the two songs Jerry Herman added to the movie for especially for her – ‘Just Leave Everything to Me’ and the beautiful ballad ‘Love is Only Love’ (cut from Mame according to Angela Lansbury!), Brinberg continues with an extensive medley of songs Streisand only sang partially or not at all in the movie.
As always, he does justice to all of them, particularly to the hauntingly charming ‘Ribbons Down My Back’, belonging to the character of Irene Malloy.
After a nod to the new Streisand album Walls with ‘Love’s Never Wrong’ and the classic Bacharach anthem ‘What the World Needs Now is Love’, Brinberg proceeds to invite the promising David Breeds for a spectacular ‘Out There’ from The Hunchback of Notre Dame followed by a duet to ‘It Only Takes a Moment’, perhaps the score’s best ballad.
The two high-points of the fast-paced concert however are the Streisand /Louis Armstrong duet to the Dolly title song and the duet with the underrated Anthony Newley, ‘Who Can I Turn To?’, in which Brinberg effortlessly shifts from Streisand’s highest tone to the deepest masculine voices one can find.
Impeccably accompanied on the piano by musical director Nathan Martin who also delivers impressive vocals in the Dolly medley, another classy evening of spectacular vocals and amusing anecdotes not to be missed.
If you did miss it, there’s only one solution: rush to the Green Room at 42nd Street in New York on 17 April or 15 May. Unless you want to wait for next year’s 50th anniversary tribute to Streisand’s following movie musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever of course.
Patrick Honoré
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