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December 12-18, 2013 • Bay area reporter • 19
Babs follows her bliss by John F. Karr
I
didn’t come to bury Barbra, but I’ll admit I was a little skeptical. Her career has been so embalmed by her perfectionism that I’d basically given up. Talk about peeing up my back and calling it rain – you can’t sing an endless succession of the same old ballads in the same old excruciatingly careful way and call it jazz just because there’s a pianoplayer noodling around behind you. But sure, I watched the telecast of Babs’ Back to Brooklyn concert. No matter how divided my loyalty, it was a Big Event. Bottom line? The faults I expected are still to be found, like the pretensions of her spoken song intros. Oy. They’re mini-episodes of Babs’ Road to Achieving Inner Serenity and World Peace. Years ago she played a yeshiva student; since then, she’s graduated to Rebbetzin. And the longueurs of all those ballads, in warm-bath arrangements that are at first anodyne, then anesthetic. And the pandering shtick, with shots of audience members dissolved in tears, and the manipulative moment of her singing “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long” to a six-year-old boy in the audience who’s cynically been wired up for sound so his participation can be heard. And the special material that ain’t that special, especially the couple of songs effortfully re-written in praise of a hometown she wrote off so long ago. The jokes sound like Babs wrote them herself. Where’s Bruce Vilanch when we need him? And Jason. Babs’ son. It’s a little embarrassing when they lock eyes to swear eternal love by singing “How Deep Is the Ocean” at each other. Yet another ballad, and not helped by Jason’s thin, toneless voice. If his mom’s name weren’t Babs, he’d never be on a stage. And yet she’s so proud of him. And she doesn’t introduce him as a singer. He’s “My son, Jason.” Oy, such nachas. On the other hand, Jason’s 46. It’s time for Babs to stop treating him like Bubeleh. As for the solo he gets, his mother may kvell, but the rest of us will be reaching for the remote. Sing a duet with the old broad if she wants you to, Jason. But then get off the stage. Okay, okay, there’s all of that. But there’s also so much really great stuff that I’m a fan all over again. Halfway through the show I went online and bought a DVD/CD combo (it’s really cheap!). The chaptering unfortunately doesn’t separate the intros from the songs, but the sound recording is the best a live concert ever had. Why isn’t there a Blu-ray? Is
Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, Joseph Piazza, Music Director, presents Babs concerned about the pitilessness of a Blu-ray close-up? Who cares if she’s had work done? It’s the world’s best. Hello, gorgeous. And you know what? She got over her fear of flying. She’s relaxed, loose, obviously having a good time. She’s gratified by the audience’s reaction, takes pleasure in giving her performance to them, even genuinely announces regrets at not having done more concerts. Makes me wonder what other late-career regrets she might have about cocooning herself the way she has. My god, she could have sung Jacques Brel, she could have filmed A Little Night Music. On and on, the first-class projects she could have done. I’m sorry, I haven’t come to bury Babs. It’s not too late for her to film Sunset Blvd., and someone should tip her off about Dear World. At any rate, there’s no regret about this concert. Her voice? She’s singing beautifully, and even seems to have conquered a lot of that inhibiting perfectionism. With extreme help from her mic, she’s got a couple of money notes that sound belted. She can’t put much pressure on the voice, so she works at lower volumes, but there’s a freeing security in what she does, and her breath control is still impressive. And – this is really swell – she has accepted and doesn’t try to mask the husky grain that’s a natural development of age. It sounds good to me, authentic, and it even ameliorates her much-satirized nasality. Babs goes for variety by singing duets with guest stars, trumpeter Chris Botti and teenage cutie Ital-
ian tenors Il Volo, but only on more ballads. As for her proposed film remake of Gypsy, well wow, how skeptic can I get? She squelched that in the smart moves of a medley, replacing the traditional belt she can’t do on “Some People” with a staccato punchiness for each word that still delivers the song’s pow. Made me think, “You go girl, make that movie!” Then there’s the not-to-bemissed great thrill of Babs’ finale, the Bernstein/Wilbur anthem from Candide, “Make Our Garden Grow.” It’s overwhelming, with Babs’ voice soaring above a symphony orchestra, the trumpeter, the Italian tenors and the hundred-voiced Brooklyn Youth Chorus. You know how everything these days gets a standing ovation? I stood up in my living room, clapping away.t
2013 Holiday Concert Thursday, December 12 Friday, December 13 Sunday, December 15 Tuesday, December 17
8 pm 8 pm 3 pm 8 pm
St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church 3281 16th Street, San Francisco General $25 / VIP $35 Tickets: www.ggmc.org or at the door. Student discount available at the door.
www.ebar.com
CONNIE CHAMPAGNE
KATYA SMIRNOFF-SKYY
WELL-STRUNG
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN
December 18
December 19
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
“The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire” (1965-68), oil painting by Ed Ruscha, from Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950.
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Dancing the Dream
From page 18
co-founder of the B.A.R., a B.A.R. dance writer, and a B.A.R. arts editor, may they all rest in peace. The Bob Ross Scholarship was awarded to Mattia Santini, 15, who came to SF Ballet School from Milan’s prestigious La Scala Theatre Ballet School. The Keith
White Scholarship was awarded to Anastasia Kubanda, 15, who hails from bucolic Front Royal, VA. And the Eric Hellman Scholarship was awarded to Veronika Selivanova, 16, originally from provincial Vancouver, WA. Congratulations to all three students, who surely have stellar careers in the ballet ahead of them.t
December 27 - 28
December 31 - Two Shows
For tickets: www.feinsteinssf.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556
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