Review: Barbra Streisand; The Diva Shines Her Light on Chicago

Barbra Streisand. That name alone strikes millions of people as one of the best singers in the world. She is a queen, a diva and a superstar all rolled into one. There's something about her personality, look and voice that is the essence of something beautiful, and that is what everybody wanted to see when Ms. Streisand Barbra Streisand played United Center tonight - the fourth stop on her BARBRA: THE MUSIC...THE MEM'RIES...THE MAGIC! tour. The only recording artist to achieve #1 albums in each of six decades, Streisand began her show performing one of her hits from each of the six decades in its first half. Ms. Streisand, as you can see, has truly accomplished so much leading up to now. With the longest span of number one albums in history, Streisand has recorded 52 gold, 31 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums in her career. ?She is the only woman to make the All-Time Top 10 Best Selling Artists list, an honor that includes fellow duet partners?Elvis Presley?and Billy Joel. With her live performances being so rare and special, the excitement surrounding a Streisand tour is unequaled. Following a 27-year hiatus from live concerts, Streisand's 1994 world tour garnered a record-setting 5 million phone requests to Ticketmaster and sold out within the first hour. Her shows in fall 2006 broke house records in 14 of the 16 venues in which she played (in the other two arenas, Streisand already held the buildings' records).

As the crowd was waiting in anticipation, the lights went down and the video retrospective began. Just as it finished, the screen opened up and out walked the diva herself. It was a very minimal set with a furniture piece on both sides of the stage. As she welcomed us, she went straight into the first song, one of her most famous ones "The Way We Were." She then joked with the audience saying, "You didn't think I was gonna do this first, did you?" From there, Barbra walked us through her 6-decade long career. With her tea and her seat center stage, she took a seat and walked us through her musical journey....

In a way, coming back to Chicago was special as she showed in the video, as she did a photo shoot years ago here on Michigan Avenue, and played Soldier Field 50 years ago on the dot. Throughout the evening, Barbra explained the meaning behind most of her album covers, which was very interesting to hear about since we all grew up on these albums that we love so much.

It was so nice to hear all the hits that we know and love including some deep cuts as well. Ms. Streisand even performed a couple songs from her upcoming album which she's promoting on this tour called Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway which gets released August 26th. On the new album, Barbra records duets with some of Hollywood's greatest actors and actresses including Anne Hathaway, Daisy Ridley, Patrick Wilson, Anthony Newley, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Melissa McCarthy, Seth McFarlane, Antonio Banderas, Chris Pine and Jamie Foxx.

One of the highlights of the night included "Who Can I Turn To," the duet she sings from that album with Anthony Newley. It was a cool video duet that was just so powerful. Newley passed away in 1999 but his memory lived on tonight with "Babs."

Despite the political comments, the show was outstanding and very extravagant. Streisand has always been a Democrat, so she was definitely pushing Hillary Clinton on the crowd and bashing Trump, which was pretty funny. But it didn't really seem to bother the crowd too much. I, personally, am not a fan of musicians expressing political views in their concerts. People pay to hear you sing, not talk politics. But we all know how political Barbra Streisand is, so it didn't matter much this time around.

The only negative thing I have to say about tonight's show is after the intermission, you can hear Barbra's voice introducing one of her favorite acts, mentalist Lior Suchard before she began her second set. Something just didn't fit there. Don't get me wrong, the man is very good at what he does. It just doesn't belong with her show. It's its own entity.

Throughout the rest of the show, Streisand was telling jokes and making the audience laugh with her great sense of humor and reacting to all the fans shouting "I love you Barbra!" You can tell she loves her fans and loves to put on a good show.

Overall, it was one of the best concerts I've seen in years. Streisand was at the top of her game. Despite the raspy voice, she gave it her all and was able to sing everything with no problems at all. Streisand follows tonight's concert with stops throughout August in Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Toronto. I highly recommend you get a chance to see her as it truly is a once-in-a-lifetime event you'll be sure to remember for a lifetime!

Setlist:

Act 1:

"The Way We Were"

"Everything"

"Being at War With Each Other"

"Everything Must Change"

"Woman in Love"

"Stoney End"

"No More Tears (Enough is Enough)"

"Evergreen"

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers"

"Being Alive" (from Stephen Sondheim's Company)

"Papa, Can You Hear Me"

Act 2:

"Pure Imagination"

Encore Video Package

"Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" (Duet with Anthony Newley)

"Losing My Mind" (from Stephen Sondheim's Follies)

"Isn't This Better"

"How Lucky Can You Get"

"With One More Look At You"

"Children Will Listen" (from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods)

"Don't Rain on My Parade" (from Funny Girl)

"People" (from Funny Girl)

"Happy Days Are Here Again"

Encore:

"I Didn't Know What Time it Was"

Credit: Photo by Tasos Katopodis/WireImage for BSB Touring

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