Color Me Barbra

After the across-the-board success of MY NAME IS BARBRA, CBS television permitted Barbra to create an even more elaborate follow-up as her second special. Streisand wisely knew, in order to follow in the ground-breaking success of MY NAME IS BARBRA, that her second special would indeed need to raise the bar even further in inventiveness and spectacle. Not surprisingly, she succeeded once again. Even more impressively, Streisand managed to mount this large production without sacrificing the intimacy and vision of MY NAME IS BARBRA.

Once again, the special is divided into three distinct Acts. Filming on location at Bergdorf Goodman's department store was so successful in the first special, that Streisand and company decided to film on location once again for the first Act of this second special. The decided-upon location this time was the Philadelphia Art Museum, which would allow endless chances for Barbra to "enter" different art works that would correspond with the songs being performed. In addition to the numerous artistic possibilities that this location made possible, the museum would offer the perfect opportunity to take advantage of filming in color.

After the recording of "Draw Me a Circle" that is set against the opening credits, Barbra then dashes around the museum in a maid costume to the strains of Kern and Harbach's "Yesterdays." She stops to admire various paintings and statues, often becoming the character that is depicted and singing a thematically appropriate song. Streisand performs a bittersweet rendition of Hammerstein and Romberg's "One Kiss" as Thomas Eakin's CONCERT SINGER, delivers a hilariously campy performance of Chopin's "Minute Waltz" as Marie Antoinette, embraces abstract art with the frenetic rhythm of Peter Matz's "Gotta Move," and performs a wrenching rendition of "Non C'est Rien" as a distraught Modigliani girl. The high point of Act I, however, is when Streisand compares profiles with the bust sculpture of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, while singing a tour de force rendition of Rogers and Hart's "Where or When." The Act II circus medley allows Streisand to interact with various farm and circus animals, while singing various songs with farm/circus/animal themes. Some highlights include Barbra singing "Were Thine That Special Face" to a baby elephant, performing "I've Grown Accustomed to that Face" as a serenade to a piglet, the campy "Sam, You Made the Pants to Long" sung to a group of baby penguins, and Barbra comparing profiles with an anteater while crooning "We Have So Much in Common." Streisand also swings on a trapeze and leaps from a trampoline to the chorus of "Spring Again," and then slows things down by performing a haunting version of "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" while seated alone on stage. Barbra also gets the chance to show off her pet poodle Sadie in this segment, and even speak a little French.

The Act III concert is once again the high point of the hour. Dressed in a slenderizing white wool dress, the concert segment is performed on a uniquely-designed stage with a partial staircase that leads nowhere. Streisand opens the Act with a sultry rendition of Harold Arlen's "Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home," before launching into heartfelt versions of the familiar standard "It Had to Be You" and the rarely-heard "C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)." Streisand then really amazes the audience with a breathtakingly powerful, octave-soaring performance of the Sweet Charity ballad "Where Am I Going," of which Streisand delivers the definitive rendition of. Streisand also introduces the then-newly written Richard Maltby, Jr.-David Shire ballad "Starting Here, Starting Now," which contains an impassioned vocal from Streisand that ranks among the very best vocal performances of her long career.

More than anything else, Color Me Barbra was a showcase for Streisand's ever-increasing, mega-watt star power. Despite the presence of even more visual razzle-dazzle, Streisand herself is always the main attraction. Her voice sounds as beautiful as ever, and this special was the first to showcase how strikingly she photographs in color. As with MY NAME IS BARBRA, COLOR ME BARBRA was another rating-smash and spawned yet another Top-Five, Gold-selling soundtrack album. Simply put, COLOR ME BARBRA defies tradition and emerges as a sequel that is nearly on par with a classic original.

Her singing in this special is simply sublime! They'll never be another whose voice has this control, sound, emotion, clarity, etc. This is what belongs in a time capsule!

A year after her triumphant first special, "My Name Is Barbra", Barbra Streisand regrouped with her production team to produce this follow-up CBS-TV special in then-revolutionary color. First broadcast in March 1966, "Color Me Barbra" follows a similar format to its predecessor - three segments, the first two with unique concepts. The first takes place in the after-hours halls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art where dressed as a period maid, she roams the galleries and becomes part of the artwork through song. In various guises, Streisand expresses a variety of moods from the comedy schtick of the "Minute Waltz" to the melodrama of "Non C'est Rien" in a Modigliani painting to the beatnik-style frenzy of "Gotta Move" set to abstract art. My favorite moment in the special is when she transforms into a dead ringer of Queen Nefertiti while singing a haunting rendition of Rogers and Hart's "Where or When".

Opening with another comic monologue full of silly non-sequiturs, this time in French, the second segment is back in the studio for a brightly-colored circus medley where she interacts with animals, including her beloved poodle Sadie. She finds an appropriate context for "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long" with a bevy of penguins and comically compares her profile to an anteater's with "We Have So Much in Common". As with the first special, the program ends with a riveting solo concert in which she sings some chestnuts, "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home", "Where Am I Going?" and "Starting Here, Starting Now" among them. Also included is the brief introduction she filmed in 1986, ironically dressed in all-white, when the special was first released on VHS. The juxtaposition of locale and song is even more effective than in her first special, and a 23-year old Streisand is in peak form.

Following her successful 1965 television special My Name is Barbra, this second show copies the 3 act structure, with some changes. Seeing Streisand in color also allows the conceiver Joe Layton and director Dwight Hemion to legitimise her look in period settings, using her comic skill and vulnerability to present her as a circus clown, and feature a concert of songs performed live to help us further accept her strange face in close-up, as preparation for her movie stardom. It is one of the ironies associated with Streisand that her extraordinary voice eminates from a person with a conventionally ugly face. However, as Funny Girl would attest, talent is beauty.

The 1st act sequence filmed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art uses a pre-recorded vocal track Yesterdays, a la I'm Late from My Name is Barbra, as a frame for other songs inspired by art work. Streisand is a maid wearing a floor-length apron over black, a curious innocent and canvas for other personas, including a Victorian romantic, Marie Antoinette, a Modigliani-inspired Frenchwoman, and Nefertiti. The transitions are handled smoothly and cleverly, with Streisand's versatile singing voice also allowing for the characterisations. Mention is made of the scale of the cartoon building where Marie Antoinette appears at a balcony, abstract work is copied for Gotta Move, after Non Ca Rien the persona escapes from the painting, and the maid's naughty refusal to enter the nude painting.

In the 2nd act, Streisand has a monologue by Robert Emmett to the audience speaking in French, introducing us to her dog Sadie, and talking about pets, that reads as less disciplined than the monologue from My Name is Barbra, though she is still funny. She is also less outgoing here, perhaps natural because this is not our first view of her, and her reserved voice is a reminder that the loud Fanny Brice from Funny Girl is an act. The monologue is a prelude to her Face medley where she sings to circus animals, dressed in the ruffle and loose clothes of a clown. Streisand is wittily juxtaposed with an anteater, with well behaved animals as the first co-stars she has. She survives the showbiz adage to never work with children or animals, though the penguins who have trouble jumping out from a trough are a worry, and her trampoline flip may involve a stunt double.

The 3rd act is Streisand in concert, dressed in high-waisted white, her short hair as androgynous as the drag queen look she wears in Gotta Move. Peter Matz' orchestra fights her on Where Am I Going, but her best moments are when she looks into the camera in close-up in It Had To Be You and the beginning of Starting Here Starting Now, where we can look back at her constantly fascinating face. The fear she expressed in the concert sequence of My Name is Barbra is replaced by a confidence and perhaps a larger fan-based studio audience, where she reclines to sing C'est Si Bon without affecting the quality of her vocal, and the long shot of her lone figure for the split screen end credits is just as resonant.

Follow-up to 1965's "My Name Is Barbra", and shot in brilliant color, "Color Me Barbra" has La Streisand alternating nostalgia, clowning comedy, feminine romantic angst, and beguiling seriousness for a crazy-quilt hour of show-biz razzle dazzle. She's a cut-up and a femme fatale, a sprite and an enigma. With her Egyptian eye make-up and ever-changing hairstyles, she's also a chameleon. Her voice is rich and moving, even if a few of her songs are not ("One Kiss", "Yesterdays"). The circus sequence isn't as intriguing as the museum trip (with the conceit of Barbra becoming the images in the paintings, an idea which works better than you may think). The circus-medley (built around songs featuring the word "face"!) is girlishly cute without ever really becoming enchanting. Still, this is a lively, jazzy special--not quite as emotionally tantalizing as "My Name Is Barbra", but certainly a sterling sophomore effort.