Review: Barbra Streisand's ENCORE Album

In her latest Broadway album, legendary diva Barbra Streisand teams up with a plethora of Hollywood's brightest stars from Daisy Ridley to Chris Pine. The album is full of Broadway classics like "Pure Imagination," "Losing My Mind," and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain." The fact that Streisand impresses with her delightful humor and powerful vocals is no surprise; it is the stars' performances like Anne Hathaway and Melissa McCarthy that are unexpected. Many of the songs include some dialogue, which adds to its feel as a true theatre album.

The ballad duets of the album are simply beautiful. "Loving You" allows Patrick Wilson to show that his performance as Raoul in the Phantom of the Opera movie didn't do his voice justice. Streisand and Hugh Jackson's duet, "Any Moment Now," is appropriately melancholy and wistful. Antonio Banderas joins Streisand for "Take Me to the World," a beautiful melody which the pair sing well.

Streisand truly shines in the numbers with the younger Hollywood starlets. "At The Ballet" from A Chorus Line with Daisy Ridley and Anne Hathaway is one of the highlights of the album, in my opinion. (Who knew Daisy Ridley could sing?) Streisand, Ridley, and Hathaway each bring their own unique humor to the funny though somewhat dark song. And, Streisand's lines about the floodlights' color doesn't fail to draw a laugh from anyone who has heard of her legendary diva behavior.

Streisand is joined by Melissa McCarthy for one of the most iconic duets of musical theatre, "Anything You Can Do," which is rewritten for the two women to fight over a lead part in a movie. By the middle of the song, the two have become friends to sing, "Anything men can do, we can do better." However, the true humor of the song is in the ending when McCarthy asks, "Can I call you Babs now?" to which Streisand immediately objects.

One of my other favorites on the album is Streisand's mash-up of "I'll Be Seeing You" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" with Chris Pine. The combination of songs is an interesting one, but it works. The jazzy rendition of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" stands out even on an album of great songs.

If you'd like this charming album, you can purchase it at Amazon, Target, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, or on Barbra's official website. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Barbra or Broadway hits as it's a lovely and chill album.

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