When the chemistry is right, people remember. In 1964 I subbed now and then on Funny Girl, a Broadway show starring Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice. It was her first big break, and she tore the house down night after night. When she quit the show a year later, she called me to play percussion on a national tour. Three years later, she broke into her acting career, winning a Best Actress Oscar for the film version of Funny Girl. I watched her skyrocket. That three-octave range—she had it all. And the chutzpah to cross borders and break new ground.
A few months later, I got a call. I said yes to the tour. Her limousine driver picked me up and dropped me off at a small airport in New Jersey where her private jet awaited her and the band. Two seats to an aisle and a private bar. Just six musicians. She used local orchestras in each city.
Along for the tour was her husband, actor Elliot Gould. Show business couples can go through a lot of changes, and I had the feeling they had played all the changes in their wedding song. Maybe his jet was in the repair shop, but he was not handling her success so well. I think he was used to getting a lot more attention. Actors have it tough. He couldn’t give up the jackass role he had cast himself in.
We arrived in Florida, played a concert with a standing ovation and repaired to a first-class hotel. Barbra knew how to travel. Next day we’re back in her private jet headed for New Orleans. It was my first time in the city that started it all. Touring can be a grind and a half with missed transportation connections and accommodations or troubles with the venue. All that was nowhere to be seen. I had never been in a situation that was so luxurious in my life.
Audiences loved Barbra. She was a fantastic musician and a model of dependable leadership. She was always on time, took everything seriously and it showed. It did not surprise me that she went in to garner awards for her film acting, writing and directing. Nor that she would succeed in film with such ballsy topics. As for her music, she outgrew the cabaret and show tunes of her early years and crossed over into rock and pop. She kept stretching. She brought that same intensity to her philanthropy work. Like the other greats I have worked with, Barbra always found a way to get it done.
AFH. The Andrew Freedman Home, 2020, https://andrewfreedmanhome.org/events/.
Eng, Matthew. "
The Greatest Star: How Barbra Streisand Broke Out Her Own Way in FUNNY GIRL." Tribeca, 4 Nov. 2020, https://tribecafilm.com/news/the-greatest-star-barbra-streisand-funny-girl-star-persona
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