Los Angeles, California
September 20 & 21, 2000: Staples Center, 8 pm
Preview
Performance
Related Links
Main Guide
Preview
Official Media Release July 19, 2000, announcing L.A. and NYC shows
FOUR CONCERTS, TWO CITIES, ONE VOICE, LAST TIME
STAPLES
CENTER, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN LAND
STREISAND'S FINAL PERFORMANCE
Barbra Streisand, whose "Timeless" concert in Las Vegas last New Year's Eve established the all-time single performance box office record, will do two concerts at Los Angeles's Staples Center (September 20, 21) and two more at New York's Madison Square Garden (September 27, 28) which her management confirms will ring down the curtain on one of the greatest... and rarest... personal appearance performing careers ever.
Martin Erlichman, the artist's career-long manager, stated, "Ms. Streisand has chosen to conclude her public performance career in the two cities most closely associated with her work."
Tickets will be placed on sale via TicketMaster for the Los Angeles concerts Sunday, July 30 and Monday, July 31 for the New York engagement. The singer's December 31, 1999 concert in Las Vegas established TicketMaster's record for highest one-day sales of a single event - entertainment or sports - in the company's 33-year history.
Ms. Streisand's public performances have been rare since the mid-60s. She historically has dedicated most of her creative time to her recording career, to her work as director, producer and actress in motion pictures and, recently, to her Barwood Films slate of issue-oriented motion pictures and documentaries for television. Prior to her 1993-94 pair of New Years concerts at the MGM Grand Garden, she had gone nearly three decades without performing for pay in public. Erlichman stated that Ms. Streisand is contemplating directing a motion picture in which she does not also star.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, her total of forty-two gold record albums makes her the highest selling female recording artist ever with number one albums in each of the last four decades and number one albums spanning a period of over 35 years, the greatest longevity in that statistic for any recording artist or group. Her 25 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums are similarly record-setting.
"We are proud that Barbra Streisand has chosen Staples Center to host what we believe will not only be the most important nights of our arena's young life, but an engagement that will go down as the premiere entertainment event ever," said Timothy J. Leiweke, President of Staples Center. "Choosing Staples Center for two of her final performances ever honors not only our arena but her fans in Los Angeles who will have the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the greatest performers of our lifetime."
Mitch Slater, Executive Vice President of SFX, stated, "It is only natural that Barbra Streisand says goodbye to her legions of hometown fans from Madison Square Garden. We are thrilled and honored to have her play the world's most famous arena for her swan song." (7/19/00)
Tickets for the two Staples Center shows
went on sale Sunday, July 30,
2000 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time via ticketmaster.com and
select TicketMaster
outlets only (including telephone orders at 1-888-9BARBRA and
213-480-3232). As of today, tickets are still available for both
shows. Seats are priced in four categories: $2,500, $1,275, $375,
$150. Refer to the seating
chart for details. Foreign orders will be accepted, but unlike
tickets for U.S. buyers which can be sent out in advance via UPS, tickets for foreign
buyers will be held at the Staples Center's will call office for pick-up
beginning Sept. 11. Full-page advertising has appeared in the L.A. Times
(7/23/00, 7/30/00) and other California publications. Tickets are still
available, as of this date. (9/2/00)
Marvin Hamlisch, Barbra's arranger-conductor for all previous Timeless
performances and 1994's concerts, is committed to other shows and
will not be available at the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden. "I
did the Millennium concerts with her and then Australia, but I won't be doing
her last ones," Hamlisch advised Mitchell Fink in the New York Daily
News (7/31/00). The maestro is certain that these four dates will be
Streisand's farewell to concerts, saying "I'm convinced of it. She
doesn't lie. She's very clear. Truthfully, she's never loved performing. She's
happily married now, and I think she wants to spend more time at home."
Hamlisch added, "All good things come to an end. I wish I could be there.
It's sad for me." The BSMG has learned that Bill Ross will
conduct Barbra's orchestra in the final four shows. A frequent collaborator
with Barbra, Ross has orchestrated and conducted many 1990s Streisand album
recordings. (9/2/00)
September 20, 2000

Review: The first of four final concert performances in
Barbra Streisand's 40-year long music career and the seventh
"Timeless" concert this year, kicked off at LA's Staples Center
last night. 37 years since her debut across town at the Cocoanut Grove,
Barbra thrilled her adopted hometown crowd with a tour de force performance that
dazzled from overture to encore. Her voice - powerfully sailing on the belt
numbers, golden smooth on ballads - sounded even finer than on this week's
release of the Timeless - Live In Concert album. Clearly relaxed,
enjoying herself enormously, and in the company of a star-studded lineup of
friends in the audience, Barbra took control the moment she stepped from
behind dancer Mark Mendonca's silver-lined cape for "Something's Coming."
at the Bon Soir. "Lover, Come Back to
Me" bounced, drove, jazzed brilliantly. Barbra patently loves singing
these classics and they were highlights in a night packed with them. The Funny
Girl collection proved another, "Don't Rain on My Parade"
capping a medley delivered with as much deceptive ease as when the numbers
were first sung three decades ago. And still one of the most stunning theatrical moments in
any concert - by anyone, anywhere - Barbra's duet with her Yentl character
(now trio with Lauren Frost) brought the cheering Staples Center crowd to
its feet, the impact of those three harmonized voices no less powerful for
its familiarity.
The first musical surprise came after a radiant "On a Clear Day,"
backed by the offstage 105-voice Loyola Marymount University Choir. The stage was washed with a purple glow on which sparkled thousands of
diamond lights, replicating a sun shower. "Come Rain or Come
Shine" hung on the still air - even Barbra remarked in an aside partway
through "This is like a little club." To create such intimacy in
this huge auditorium is a mark of the singer's masterful control of her
material and her audience. Next came the duets section (again without
"Crying Time"). "I Finally Found Someone" and "You
Don't Bring me Flowers" both received huge ovations, particularly as
Jeff Bridges and Neil Diamond were in the audience. "The Clicker Blues"
stayed in, "Simple Pleasures" was out, then straight on to the
enormously popular "The Main Event/Fight." No wand flashlights
were distributed this time round, but a lone torchbearer down in front
bobbed along in disco time!
"Now here's a song first heard in 1929 in a show called Chasing
Rainbows." Someone in the audience began to applaud and Barbra
teased, "You know what it is? I'll bet you ten dollars you don't!"
It was, of course, "Happy Days Are Here Again," starting with the
original Garry Moore Show arrangement and building to the familiar
vamp version Barbra has made her own. The wistful "Don't Like
Goodbyes" led to "I Believe" and "Somewhere" -
Lauren Frost joined Barbra for the final bars and up the staircase they
stepped, Brother Time enveloping Young Barbara in his cloak, our Barbra
taking the last, long, triumphant note alone from midway up. Played off with
the "Somewhere" theme, Barbra disappeared. We knew she'd be back
for encores - and did she make them worth the wait!Act 1
- Overture (tap dancing)
- You'll Never Know (Lauren Frost)
- Something's Coming (with Frost)
- The Way We Were
- Shirley MacLaine Y1K (comedy dialogue)
- Cry Me A River
- Lover, Come Back To Me
- A Sleepin' Bee
- I'm The Greatest Star / Second Hand Rose / Don't Rain On My Parade
- Something Wonderful / Being Alive
- As Time Goes By
- Alfie
- Evergreen
- Papa, Can You Hear Me? / You'll Never Know (with Frost)
- A Piece Of Sky (with Frost)
Act 2
- Entr'acte
- Putting It Together
- On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever) {with choir}
- Come Rain Or Come Shine
- Duets
- Happy Days Are Here Again / Get Happy (with Judy Garland)
- Guilty (with Barry Gibb)
- I Finally Found Someone (with Bryan Adams)
- Tell Him (with Celine Dion)
- You Don't Bring Me Flowers (with Neil Diamond)
- Sing (with Jason Gould)
- I've Got A Crush On You (with Frank Sinatra)
- The Clicker Blues
- The Main Event / Fight
- I've Dreamed Of You
- Love Like Ours
- Happy Days Are Here Again {with choir}
- Don't Like Goodbyes
- I Believe / Somewhere (with Frost) {with choir}
Encores
- The Music That Makes Me Dance
- My Man
- Before The Parade Passes By
- People
Barbra's Stage Patter

Review:
Before embarking on "A Sleepin' Bee" she noted that she doesn't
usually like to do back-to-back appearances so was feeling a little hoarse.
Despite that claim, there was little evidence apart from some rather appealing
and appropriate catches in her voice in "Cry Me a River" and "Alfie."
Indeed, last night, Barbra soared to the high final note in "Something's
Coming," exhibited her trademark remarkable breath control on
"Something Wonderful," threw herself wholeheartedly into "Being
Alive" (with another astonishing final note) and by the second act,
produced a rafter-raising "On a Clear Day." She always amazes with
the final "ever more" but the last note was held so long that even
SHE fluttered her hands in front of her as the note went on forever! "Now
I know why singers are supposed to vocalise. The first act was my
warm-up!" she grinned.
So at home did Barbra feel, she literally kicked off her shoes when sitting to
sing "I've Dreamed of You" and padded about the stage barefoot
during "Happy Days are Here Again." ("I hope I don't get a
splinter," was her aside). In fact she was only persuaded
to return downstage to retrieve her shoes in time for the encores!
I'm not sure how the L.A. Times reviewer saw "The Main
Event/Fight" as the weakest link - both nights it has proved a real
audience favorite. It may not be a classic hit, but it is great fun, the crowd
loves it, and Barbra proves yet again she can handle any style of music with
ease and mastery. During last night's version, Barbra quipped "I feel
like Cher!" which elicited a huge laugh.
Ad libs were inserted seamlessly in last night's performance. Mentioning that
her stockbroker was in the audience, Barbra confided "We had a bad day
today. The NASDAQ is down. I'm an addict - yes, I'm a day trader!"
Finally Barbra again thanked her audience for all the support and love over
the years. She loves to hear that a song of hers has been used for a wedding
or special occasion and to know that she has become a little part of people's
lives. "We've grown up together," she observed - the audience warmly
applauded in agreement.
- Kim Hatherly,
exclusive to The BSMG (9/22/00)
Barbra's Stage Patter
- Right before singing "Before The Parade Passes By," Barbra accidentally
used a rose in her hand as a microphone. It was humorous when
she had the rose in her right hand and the mic in her left, and she
started talking to the rose, thinking it was the mic. 
Los Angeles Times, "Romance Agrees With Streisand" by Robert Hilburn (review)