By Michael Barbieri****With his infamous offstage sigh, Steven Brinberg’s Simply Barbra hit the stage at The Green Room 42 and proved that his loving, yet often wicked, impersonation of Ms. Streisand has as much staying power as the diva herself!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the film version of Funny Girl and Brinberg’s Barbra celebrated it in style. She regaled us with songs from the film and a few numbers from the original Broadway version, along with a panoply of tried and true classics from her long and illustrious career.
That sigh—practically a Brinberg trademark that embodies his hilarious “I’m Barbra and I’m above it all” attitude—led into the perfect Streisand opener, “I’m the Greatest Star.” Telling us that she wouldn’t be doing the next number on roller skates, she then went into “I’d Rather Be Blue,” a song added to Funny Girl, sung originally by Fanny Brice in the 1928 film My Man. From the very start, Brinberg’s voice was on point, although to my ear, he’s never sounded exactly like Streisand—his vocals are,
in many ways, more delicate. Sung mostly in falsetto with a strong dose of reverb on the mic, what he has always nailed is her distinctive phrasing and her vocal tics. He’s also mastered her look—the longish, bobbed hairdo and elegant, loose, somewhat shapeless black two-piece outfit; a look which we first saw in 1994, around the time of Barbra: The Concert.
The patter between songs was pure parody: Barbra introduced “Don’t Rain On My Parade” with a story of her quest for perfection on the set of Funny Girl—in particular, the famous tugboat moment, where she insisted on choosing just the right color of paint for the boat, so it would complement her costume and makeup. She also mentioned that her niece had called the number her favorite song from the TV show “Glee,” where it had been performed by Lea Michele. Barbra responded with “No, it’s not Glee…it’s ME!” We even learned that Funny Girl was actually part of a trilogy, which included the sequel, Funny Lady, and would be completed with the making of the final film, Funny Panther.
And of course, the hits kept coming. We heard “More Than You Know,” from Funny Lady, with Brinberg recreating Barbra’s surprised eye pop on a final high note; “The Way We Were,” in which he embodied her ethereal vocal style; “You Are Woman, I Am Man,” done as a duet with Musical Director Christopher Denny and “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” from the stage version of Funny Girl, which never made it into the film. A wonderfully silly bit in this number involved Barbra humming gently during a musical interlude and continuing to hum as she sipped from her ever-present cup of hot tea! As the number ended, however, Brinberg really let go with the vocal and gave us a gorgeously strong, emotional finish! Another powerful moment was “My Man,” in which his delivery was beautifully dramatic and his recreation of Streisand’s phrasing was spot-on accurate!
Special guest Sam Krivda gave us a simple, potent version of “I Don’t Remember Christmas” from Starting Here, Starting Now, after which Brinberg’s Barbra joined him, remarking that he was “so bitter and so young!” They then teamed up for a duet of Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s “If We Were In Love,” at the end of which she reached up to stoke Krivda’s hair and face, as the real Streisand did with Neil Diamond on the Grammy Awards in 1980—a funny, yet touching moment.
Some of Barbra’s other films were discussed; She brought up Hello Dolly, saying that despite having been told she was too young for the film, she might consider playing Dolly in the current Broadway production, except now she’s too…busy. She also spoke about her version of A Star is Born and referenced Lady Gaga’s remake. She said she and Kris Kristofferson had visited Gaga on-set, where they were treated wonderfully, wondering if it had been Be Kind to Seniors Week!
After a lovely “Beauty in the World” from Broadway’s War Paint, Brinberg treated us to a fantastic display of his skills impersonating celebrities other than Streisand. The context was clever: a medley of songs by musical stars longing to record duets with Streisand. And while some of the voices were well-known—his Eartha Kitt, Cher, and Bette Davis were real standouts—ther
e were other voices I’ve never heard done by any impersonator. I mean, who else can imitate Julie Wilson, Lena Horne and Betty Buckley?! Amazing!
No Brinberg/Streisand show would be complete without one of Funny Girl’s, and Barbra’s, biggest hits, “People,” which was sung to perfection. And the evening wrapped up with one last fabulous example of Brinberg’s vocal dexterity: a “duet” featuring Barbra and Anthony Newley singing “Who Can I Turn To?” with Brinberg switching deftly between voices. As with his other impressions, he captured Newley’s well-known cadences, with the broadly exaggerated vowel sounds and his deeply dramatic delivery.
It would be unfair to call Brinberg just a drag queen. It would be too easy to call him just another Streisand impersonator. He’s a drag artist who is an exceptional vocal impersonator. He’s also a hell of an entertainer, whose show has evolved steadily over the years. I’ve seen him perform many times and while some of his best songs and bits of patter have remained the same, he’s always adding new material to keep the show timely.
As Streisand is timeless, so is Steven Brinberg!
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