The 2016 Tour
2017 Shows
“My manager said to me, ‘Barbra, you have had No. 1 albums in six decades’ so that was the idea of the first act, anyway,” Barbra told The Miami Times about the idea for her concert tour. “The first act is about singing the songs from those albums that were No. 1. The second act is of my new material.”
Barbra Streisand brought her legendary live performances to 9 cities in August 2016. Streisand commenced her concert tour to promote her new album, ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Every ticket purchased online included a CD of Streisand's new album, which was released later in the year (August 26, 2016).
The tour was presented by Live Nation Global Touring and S2BN Entertainment; the tickets went on sale May 25th.
After Barbra completed her August concert dates, a second round was announced September 21st — including her first ever appearances in both Houston, at the Toyota Center, and Tampa, at the Amalie Arena. Those tickets went on sale September 29th. Streisand and her team filmed the December 5th Miami show as a Netflix special.
And then ... just when you thought she was done ... there was an announcement on February 1, 2017 that Streisand would perform two more concerts (retitled as “Barbra: The Encore ... The Music . . . The Mem’ries . . . The Magic!”) in New York in May 2017.
Barbra told the New York Times about her motivation. “I’m killing myself for this tour, because there’s a painting I want,” she said. “There was a painting I wanted and it was expensive. I’m a big fan of (Amedeo) Modigliani,” she told the Associated Press. “I really had a save up for it … I lent it to the Tate Museum in London. I can’t work for money. I have to work for an object that I love, something I want to live with …What does money do? It goes somewhere, a stock, a bond. I don’t see it. But a painting I can look at every day and enjoy.”
Barbra also brought along her beloved Samantha, a fluffy white Coton de Tulear. “She knows the set list for my show,” Streisand explained. “Sammy will come running to the side of the stage when she hears the song before the intermission.”
Jeremy Railton, Chairman and Founder of Entertainment Design Corp., was back in 2016 to design the set for Streisand's concert tour. “Like Cher,” Railton said, “Barbra is always intimately involved in the creative design of her sets. If she hadn’t been a singer she could have been a great interior designer. I loved collaborating with her.”
Railton also explained, “Our interest within this show is finding the elegance and grandeur of the performance, packaging Ms. Streisand's unrelenting and timeless vocals into a visual theatrical palette.”
“The use of digital scenery is one of the aspects of this design that we are relying heavily on,” explained Alex Calle, EDC's CEO. “The LED screens of most tours have become a canvas of motion graphics. Cool abstract imagery zooming across the screen. With this tour, we are attempting to use the LED screens as a vehicle to bring large digital scenic pieces on and off stage. Similar to how a theatrical fly house flies scenery on and off stage, or tracks it from off left or right, here we are using the screens to house our scenic elements to the show. Large chandeliers, operatic drapery, or a corinthian colonnade might all track on stage to set the scene for the next number.”
For the recording of this Streisand performance, engineer David Reitzas was back again.
“She is such a pro at naturally using a microphone. She knows when she belts out to hold the microphone out a bit in the right position, and when she’s singing more intimately she brings it up closer to her mouth. With the AE5400, the proximity effect is just perfect. Her range is incredible, so you need a microphone that can pick up the subtleties of when she’s like singing in a lyrical, personal style, and then her signature high, long notes where she’s belting it out needs to also be able to be handled properly. Studio work and live performance are obviously very different, but one of the goals is to bring the fidelity and warmth of the studio experience to a live concert hall, and that involves using microphones that capture the nuances of her voice. I couldn’t be happier with the AE5400 for the whole range – it’s just perfect for her.”
Randy Waldman has been Barbra Streisand's pianist and musical director for over 30 years. For the 2016-17 tour, he acted as musical director and conductor. Streisand employed a small band for this tour, whereas in the past she was joined by conductor Bill Ross and a 50-60-member orchestra. This time, ten band members and three backup singers joined her onstage.
Barbra’s first act look was designed with her friend Donna Karan. “The way I work with Donna is I draw what I see” she explained to Women's Wear Daily. “The top, I thought, should have the lace in the shoulders that matches the bottom insert of the pants.” She went on to say “In making something, you can’t just measure one aspect. It’s not just a matter of inches, it’s where the inches fall. Everything is like that to me.”
Streisand wore a beautiful Marchesa dress in the second act with a jeweled neckline. “With Marchesa, for the second act, I redesigned a dress I saw on the runway,” Barbra explained about the beautiful gray chiffon gown. “I know my own body and that’s why I know what to show and what to disguise.”
Streisand worked with Marchesa’s founders Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig on the dress. “You pin it, you talk about it, you see it, you try it, it’s one fitting and then it’s done. It was so delicious, so delightful, so wonderful,” Barbra said.
Barbra Streisand has always modified her live shows during her recent concert tours. She is known to change the song order, drop songs (or add them) at each venue, making each concert a unique and tailored experience.
Barbra hinted during an interview that some of her duet partners from her new album would possibly join her on stage. So, fans wondered which singers would show up where. Los Angeles fans were rewarded with three guests: Babyface, Seth MacFarlane, and Jamie Foxx. And Brooklyn audiences were treated to Patrick Wilson and —singing an electrifying "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" with Barbra again—Jamie Foxx. Foxx and Wilson joined Streisand in Miami in December and were filmed for the Netflix special (although only Foxx’s duet with Streisand made the final cut of the T.V. show).
Fans with discerning ears may have noticed some lyric changes to two of Barbra's catalog songs she sang during the tour.
“Everything” (from A Star is Born)
If they give me the time to turn the tide
Give me the truth, if once I lied
(New: Always save room for hope inside)
Give me the man who's gonna bring
(New: I only know that love can bring)
More of ev'rything ....More of ev'rything ....
Barbra dropped the lovely Bernard Ighner song “Everything Must Change” from the show at the second Brooklyn concert, but returned it to the show when she played her Florida dates. There was a lyric update on that song, too, by Barbra’s longtime A&R man, Jay Landers:
The young become the old
(New: The weak become the strong)
And myst'ries do unfold
(New: A child learns right from wrong)
'Cause that's the way of time .....
Streisand invited “Master Mentalist” Lior Suchard to tour with her for the August concerts. His very entertaining act began in Los Angeles in Act One (after the "hits" medley), then was moved to Act Two (after "Losing My Mind") in Las Vegas. By the time Barbra's concert tour reached Chicago, it was decided that Suchard worked best at intermission, just before Barbra took the stage again. He stayed at intermission for the rest of the tour. Unfortunately, he was already booked and unable to perform at Streisand’s November and December 2016 dates.
"With One More Look at You" was cut from the show in Vegas to accomodate the placement of Lior Suchard. Barbra brought the Star is Born song back as an encore in Boston. For the last two concerts (Philly and Toronto), Barbra returned "WOMLAY" to the First Act, after "Evergreen."
For her encore, Barbra sang "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" from the new album at the first six shows. She sang it again in Philly. Then, at the Toronto show, Barbra sang an entirely different “oldie” as her encore — “By the Way,” which she wrote the music for in 1975.
Jay Landers shared his Spotify pre-concert playlist which played as the audience walked in and took their seats.
Billboard’s Boxscores reported Streisand’s ticket revenue on December 2016:
The tour’s opening trek ran for three weeks ahead of her Aug. 26 album release Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. With the fall concerts added to the overall counts, the final box office gross reached $46 million from 177,524 sold seats at 14 concerts in 13 cities.
June 2017:
Barbra Streisand’s The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic Tour wrapped with a total gross of $53 million, following two final performances during May in the New York metropolitan area. In total, The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic Tour sold 203,423 tickets at 16 shows in 14 North American cities.
End / 2016-2017 The Music... The Mem’ries... The Magic Concert Tour – Main Page
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