Music / “To Barbra, with Love – An 80th Birthday Celebration”. At Canberra Theatre, February10. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN

AFTER a six-decade career across stage, film and music, Barbra Streisand turned 80 in April. Despite 52 gold albums and 31 platinum albums to her credit, remarkably she never learned to read music and hardly ever did vocal exercises. 

Her incredible vocal power, rich tone, finesse and vocal agility were just natural gifts.

It was that incredible talent that was celebrated in “To Barbra, with Love” but, unfortunately, the show did not start well. 

Sound balance was initially so incredibly poor (a sound desk or show director, not player, issue) that hardly a word of the opening song, ironically “Putting it Together”, was discernible. Virtually everything was drowned out by bass and drums. 

Much better sound production is expected of a touring professional show but the domination in the mix of rhythm instruments was annoying and frustrating. 

Aspects of the sound design did improve and the drum kit was brought back to acceptable levels, but bass/bass guitar pounded away too loudly the entire night. World-class singers and an excellent orchestra were on stage but it took far too long before the lovely Streisand melodies became the feature of the show.

Thankfully, the sound mix had settled somewhat by the time the brilliant triple threat and vastly experienced Caroline O’Connor sang a moving interpretation of the towering “People” from “Funny Girl”, the show that gave Streisand her first big theatrical break.

Evidence of Ms Streisand’s mastery of a wide variety of musical styles followed with Katie Noonan emotive and pure in her portrayal of “Evergreen”, a song composed by Streisand herself.

The first half highlight was “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, beautifully sung by Elise McCann (perhaps best known for her role as Miss Honey in the Australian production of “Matilda”) with Ainsley Melham (who played the title role in both the Australian and Broadway productions of “Aladdin”) singing the Neil Diamond part of the famous duet. 

With rhythm section resting this was the first real opportunity to clearly hear the lush strings of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra under the clear, guiding baton of Vanessa Scammell.

Melham sang a joyous version of “Happy Days Are Here Again” and O’Connor concluded a less than fully satisfying Act 1 with a driving, pulsating “Don’t Rain on my Parade”.

Thankfully, some necessary adjustments seemed to be made to the sound mix during interval so the earlier sense of apprehension and uncertainty disappeared and Act 2 delivered a much more competent and confident offering with Noonan turning to her jazz chops for a powerfully emotive version of the crushing “Cry Me a River”. Shortly afterwards she changed style effortlessly and soared to great operatic-type heights with controlled and crystal clear tone in “Somewhere” from “West Side Story”.

There were poignant moments with two Burt Bacharach tunes, “One Less Bell to Answer” and “House is Not a Home” in a fitting tribute on the day of his passing, then the emotional highlight of the concert – a stunning and heartfelt McCann interpretation of “Papa Can You Hear Me” from “Yentl”. 

“Guilty”, by the Bee Gees, provided an appropriate contrast into the pop world then the dearly loved “Send in the Clowns” and “The Way We Were” before all four singers joined forces in a rollicking encore which closed the show.

With a quartet of such versatile and talented singers accompanied by a tight, well balanced and led Canberra Symphony Orchestra this show had the potential to reach great heights and be a more pleasing and fitting tribute to one of the finest artists of our time. Sound reproduction issues robbed the audience of that opportunity. The show somewhat climbed the stairs, but didn’t ever reach the stars.