Godmother of the Ditzy Chicks?

Review: A warm and elegant Streisand in Phila.
By David Patrick Stearns
INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC

Is this truly farewell?

The opening performance of what's likely to be Barbra Streisand's farewell, 16-city tour certainly felt that way: Much of last night's sold-out show at the Wachovia Center summed up her 40-plus years in show business, dipping as far back as her mid-1960s nightclub repertoire, progressing to her Broadway show Funny Girl and to movies such as The Way We Were. And then she went for broke.

In the second half, Streisand was fielding questions from the audience when, in a moment of faux spontaneity, she was visited by a particularly keen George W. Bush imitator (real name: Steve Bridges). A longtime Democrat, Streisand quizzed him on various hot-button issues such as global warming, only to have him give glib, breezy answers, like proposing to solve the national debt by selling Canada. "They don't use half of it!" he exclaimed.

Of course, they sang a duet - the one, in fact, that Streisand sang with Judy Garland years ago, blending "Happy Days Are Here Again" with "Get Happy" (the faux Bush filling in for Garland). Much of the audience that paid as much as $750 cheered, but there were also hecklers, one of whom seemed to yell, "Barbra, you stink!"

She took it in stride, reminding the audience that we live in a country where such fun freedom of speech is allowed, and returned to a reflective mood by singing "Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" from the TV special Color Me Barbra, which was partly filmed at the Art Museum.