“As if We Never Said Goodbye”
Ladies and gents,
This week has been all about the ladies!
She knows her way around here
I ventured to Brooklyn last night to the much discussed Barclays Center to see the icon to end all icons: Barbra Streisand. Barbra and I go back … a long way. A long, long way. We’re talking the 1960’s, here. Everything they say about her is true: she is aloof, she is difficult, she is a mad perfectionist, and she’s also the most talented performer I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing live on stage. Well, at 70 she hasn’t lost a step. Last night’s show, which received world-wide attention as the quintessential Brooklyn girl’s return to her home borough, was her smartest in years. A set list perfectly crafted to flaunt her vocal powers, which have changed with the years though haven’t diminished, and please her diehard fans. I’d give you the set list, but I don’t want to spoil anything for future audiences (though, if you’re desperate to know, a quick Google search should quell your curiosity). What I will tell you is this: her friend and collaborator, the late Marvin Hamlisch, gets his due in a tribute that made the entire crowd (more than 18,000 people strong) completely verklempt. I’ll also say this: everyone who’s anyone was there, including the likes of Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Michael Strahan, Calvin Klein, Michael Douglas, Elliot Gould, Rosie O’Donnell and Ed Koch. Dear readers, there are singers, and there a stars. There are great singers, and there are great stars. But there’s only one Barbra. She has one more show in Brooklyn and if you live in the tri-state area stop short only at murder to gain yourself access!
Where the girls are
The U.N. proclaimed yesterday, October 11, as International Day of the Girl Child, “to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.” That fierce advocate for everything good and just in this world, Eve Ensler, used the occasion to introduce the New York media to her new play, Emotional Creature (based on her book of the same name). Six girls of every color took to individual microphone stands to deliver selections from Ensler’s script, including a particularly sharp monologue about a wise-beyond-her-years Chinese girl who works in a Barbie factory and a particularly devastating monologue about an African girl running from her village to avoid genital mutilation. I saw even a few of those hard-nosed photographer types welling up at the latter (as did this hard-nosed reporter).
Tidbits from around town…
Witnessed pop sensation Katy Perry asking a hotdog vendor if she could just have onions and sauerkraut on a bun. She’s either vegetarian or just plain nuts.
Saw Hoda Kotb scarfing chocolate covered espresso beans from Dean & Deluca at Rockefeller Center.
Caught Tracie Bennett giving the late-night crowd at Marie’s Crisis a thrill by belting out her signature “The Man That Got Away.”
As always, a toast of something sparkling to you and yours!
Kisses,
