Streisand / LIVE 

MSG SET LIST

ACT ONE

As If I Never Said Goodbye (MSG lyrics)

Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home

Lover Man

New York Memories (monologue & pictures)

The Man That Got Away

Evergreen

With One More Look at You

Guilty / Stoney End (alt lyrics) / Woman in Love / Enough is Enough

Political Friends Introductions

Second Hand Rose

Don’t Rain On My Parade

ACT TWO

The Way We Were

You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught / Children Will Listen

Send in the Clowns

Send in the Clowns (Trump parody lyrics)

Walls

People

My Man

Sing / Happy Days Are Here Again

What the World Needs Now

Encore: Alfie 

“Poignant memories aside, most of the stage banter skewed toward the hilarious, whether Barbra was toasting her dogs, roasting some of the outfits she’s worn in the past, thanking MSG mainstay ‘Billy Joel for taking the night off’ or skewering her own footwear after taking off her heels and switching to flats during the show. ‘They look like crappy shoes but they’re actually Chanel -- 800-dollar flip-flops,’ she said, sounding Brooklyn-bred through and through”

.... Billboard Magazine Review by Joe Lynch

CONCERT SUMMARY

By Matt Howe

The Garden (as New Yorkers call Madison Square Garden) was buzzing with a tangible energy when I arrived. There were many questions, which created excitement amongst the fans: Would the show be similar to or different than her recent Hyde Park, London concert? Would she sing with any guests? What would she wear? Was there any new merch?

The energy in The Garden was elevated when the celebrities started taking their seats. There was Rosie O’Donnell, Ben Platt, Whoopie Goldberg, Mary Steenburgen, Billy Crystal, Sally Field sitting next to Richard E. Grant (attending his second Streisand concert!), Brenda Vaccaro, Clive Davis, and Mariah Carey (who took her seat after the first song). 

Barbra’s “political pals” were there too: David Dinkins (the 106th Mayor of New York City); Al Sharpton; Congressman Jerry Nadler; and her friends Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. When the Clintons entered the arena, the New York audience gave them a warm, standing ovation and applauded for several minutes.

After the orchestra played Barbra’s overture (which was the original 1967 Central Park overture), an announcer asked the audience to “please welcome back to The Garden … Barbra Streisand!” 

Barbra was greeted with a standing ovation as she strode out wearing a flowing black Azeeza gown, (“it’s like a bathroom/coat. Sometimes I get cold and cover up,” she said later.) 

Barbra’s opening number was a funny and poignant version of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” with New York-specific lyrics tailored by Jay Landers.

I don’t know why I’m frightened

I know my way around here

The stage, the band, it’s all so grand

And you’re here

But I have to beg your pardon

Cause I’m back here in The Garden

And I need a moment.

(So talk amongst yourselves, I’m getting verklempt. If you don’t know what verklempt means, it’s fatootsed, ya know?)

Barbra said hello to the New York audience and even sang a playful phrase of “it’s so nice to be back home where I belong.”

“I played that part, didn’t I?” Streisand joked about her 1969 movie role as Dolly Levi. 

Then Streisand thanked Billy Joel for taking the night off “so you could all spend some time with me.” (Joel began a one-show-per-month residency at The Garden in 2014.) 

Barbra sang two 1960s songs to begin her concert “Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home” and “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be).” During “Lover Man” Barbra interjected that “it’s hard to work in high heels.”

Between songs, Barbra asked, “You don’t mind if I take my shoes off, do you?” And she changed into gold flats. “They look like crappy shoes, but they’re actually Chanel. Eight hundred-dollar flip-flops,” she said as we laughed.

Barbra showed the audience some photos on the big screen behind her, remembering her early days in New York city. On the talent contest she won at the Lion (a gay bar), Streisand remarked, “It turns out that my first fans were the gay community and I’m still very grateful for their support.”

She also shared some rare photos of herself rehearsing for the 1967 Central Park concert. When a photo of Streisand rehearsing in a green flowered dress came up, she joked “This [outfit] I have no excuse for. I don’t know who found this picture, but I’m gonna kill them.”

More laughs when Barbra showed us the sparkly pantsuit she wore for the Timeless concert and said, “Somebody stole this outfit from my dressing room. That was terrible. Never caught him. Or her.”

A Star is Born was next. After Barbra explained that the second version of that movie was made by Judy Garland, she sang a sublime version of “The Man That Got Away” sitting at the crook of the piano (after forgetting her mic stage center!).

Still in Star is Born mode, Barbra showed the guitar-playing scene, which was cut from the final film, and also sang the big song from her 1976 version, “Evergreen,” followed by a rousing version of “With One More Look at You.”

The audience sang along a bit during her “hits” medley, which included “Guilty,” “Stoney End,” (like in Hyde Park, with the original Laura Nyro lyrics), “Woman in Love,” and “Enough is Enough” (with backup singer Tim Davis providing the complimentary vocals that Donna Summer would have sung). “I’m glad you joined in!” she told the audience.

Barbra spent a few minutes introducing her “political pals” next, and the audience applauded them all.

Introducing “Second Hand Rose,” Barbra explained that early in her career she shopped at thrift stores for her clothes. She figured “rich people gave it away, so the clothes must be clean.” 

“It was my hope that the finale of my musical film career was going to be a new version of one of the greatest musicals ever written, Gypsy,” Streisand said next. “I really wanted to play Mama Rose … I felt like I really knew who the woman was … I even made an 8-minute film to prove my version could work. Well, you can’t always get what you want. But I’m also not the kind of woman who gives up her dream!”

Then, Barbra began the “reprise” version of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from the Broadway Funny Girl, hitting the spotlight on “At least I didn’t fake it!” and continuing with the driving version of the iconic song we all know and love. The orchestra played her off the stage, and the hour-long first act was over.

The second act began with the orchestra accompanying some rare footage of Barbra on the big screen (the same footage was shown in Hyde Park). Barbra surprised us when she appeared on stage wearing a beautiful off-white ensemble, designed by her friend Donna Karan. She sang a plaintive “The Way We Were.”

Team Barbra was counting the standing ovations she received from her home town audience. After the second act opening song, the count was at nine. Audience members called out to her as she lifted her tea cup and made a toast: “May we all be as wonderful as our dogs think we are!”

“I sang it at your inauguration, Mr. President,” Barbra said to Mr. Clinton as she began a medley of “You’ve Got to be Taught / Children Will Listen.”

Next, Streisand mixed pathos with parody when she sang “Send in the Clowns” twice – first, the beautiful Stephen Sondheim song, and next with special lyrics aimed at Donald Trump, our troubling president. “I also respect Republicans; they pay for the tickets just like you [Democrats].” Then, as she began her parody version of the song, she asked the Republicans to cover their ears. 

He says he’s rich, maybe he’s poor

Till he reveals his returns, who can be sure? 

Who is this clown?

Something’s amiss; I don’t approve

Now that’s he’s running the free world where can we move?

Name me a town

Just who is this clown?

This is no farce, it’s not just smoke

Is this his art of the deal or some awful joke?

You’ve got to admit, this fraudulent twit

Is so full of ……

The audience laughed and applauded. A few heckles were heard in the arena (“shut up and sing”). That’s curious, because most of her fans know that Barbra is a lifelong Democrat and a very outspoken critic of Mr. Trump. In fact, Barbra already sang a version of this parody in 2016 at a Clinton fundraiser, so the virtue signaling around this is baffling.

When the audience calmed down, Streisand fearlessly made her point one last time, describing Trump’s character with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “He’s a man who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.” 

In this show, Barbra included the beautiful title ballad from her latest album Walls. She explained that walls “can protect us or they can divide us. And I guess it all depends on which side of the wall you’re on.” Her performance of “Walls” was melancholic and powerful. This song was one of the standouts from the album, and Barbra sang it beautifully at The Garden.

Climate change was on Barbra’s mind that evening, too. “Without a planet, we have no real home,” she said. She explained that scientists say there is hope and there are solutions, but that we, the people need to speak out, vote, and raise our voices. “Because, like always, it comes down to …. People, people who need people…” Barbra sang the breezy, jazzy “People” that she recorded for the Partners album, with the big concert ending as the finale.

“My Man” showed that Streisand was in powerful, belting mode that night. Wow! It was a commanding performance, especially as she ended with “forever more …..”

“You know,” Barbra said to the audience (which was standing again), “it’s fun to sing for a wonderful audience. It’s inspiring. It just gives me a higher note!”

As the second hour of her show was ending, Barbra spoke about the power of music, introducing “this little song, that in its childlike way, is quite profound. I discovered it when my son Jason and I would watch Sesame Street together.”

I broke into tears hearing Barbra Joan Streisand sing the simple “Sing / Happy Days” – a medley I’ve listened to over and over again all these years which was on her 1972 Live Concert at the Forum album. To hear her sing it this evening at The Garden was very moving to me. She finished with the stalwart “Happy Days Are Here Again,” ad libbing at the end of the song, “yes, they’ll be here again!”

As a closing thought, Barbra wished we could all agree that “the antidote to lies is truth; the remedy to war is diplomacy; and the solution to hate is love.”

“What the World Needs Now” was very special at Madison Square Garden as the fans pulled out their cell phones and turned on the flashlight app. When I looked behind me, the entire arena was lit by beautiful, tiny lights – like lightning bugs – as we sang along, “what the world needs now is love sweet love.” Barbra united us all at that moment. 

Randy Waldman and Barbra conferred after her bows that she was going to sing “Alfie” as her encore … and she did, and it was beautiful.

Barbra’s hometown received her warmly and enthusiastically at The Garden. There’s nothing like a New York audience!

End / Madison Square Garden, New York 2019