Streisand / Television

After a commercial break, Katie chided Barbra that she was coming “out of retirement” to sing again. Barbra clarified, “No, I didn’t announce [my retirement]. It was just that I said it’s very tough to go on stage for two hours, and dress up, and wear high heels, and sing 22 songs a night, and it’s very exhausting. So every time I did it, I said I won’t do this again, but never say never. And it’s turned out, it’s been over… Every six years I seem to do very few concerts. When I talk to other performers, they do 300 dates a year, 250 dates a year. I’ve done 42 since 1963 – that is very little.”



About singing in Brooklyn after so many years, Barbra revealed “I was actually—years ago—planning a [television] special called Barbra's Brooklyn.”



She further explained the impetus for getting on the stage again: “When times get tough, in terms of movies, and things are changing, I always feel safe going home to where I know I can have the audience come, which is the concert world. That's very fulfilling.”



Katie and Barbra then talked about Release Me. “I was so critical in those days, that if there was one note I didn't like, and I didn't have time to do it over, I just wouldn't release it.”



When asked about Marvin Hamlisch, Streisand recalled, “My musical director... said, 'When we do The Way We Were, why don't we go back to Marvin's original orchestration from the film?' and I thought that was a great idea and a friend of mine sent me a song that he wrote many years ago that was never put into a show and I loved it and I wanna do it on the next album... a duets album.



“I couldn't wait to tell him that I wanna do that song... I wrote myself a note: 'Call Marvin'. And when I finished rehearsal at about 11 o'clock at night I tried to call him and I called my friends to try to find out where he was and they hadn't heard from him either ... so I never got to tell him these things and that note is still on my table, because I can't even let go of the note.”

(Hamlisch died on August 6 after a short illness.)



Couric, after the break, asked Barbra, “You never did a third Broadway album. Do you think you might still?”



Barbra replied, after a beat: “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.” 



Streisand told Couric that she would not consider performing on Broadway again, “Unless they brought the stage to Malibu and I could do two shows a week!”



The next line of questioning involved who Barbra would like to sing a duet with ...



Barbra: I like Keith Urban. I like Usher. John Legend. There’s some really good guys around.



Katie mentioned Lea Michele (from Glee) and how Barbra is her role model. “She’s been encouraged to get her nose done, and she’s been very strong about it and said she’s not going to do it, that Barbra Streisand didn’t do hers.”



“Good for her,” Barbra said. “You never could tell. It might change the sound of your voice. The guy might botch it up and make it worse than it was. You just don’t know.”



Katie Couric tried to get Barbra to say “Your girl is lovely, Hubbell,” from The Way We Were After briefly discussing working with Redford and coming up with the brushing of his hair, Katie asked, “Is it wrong that I kind of want you to do that to my hair?”



Barbra obliged Katie and brushed her bangs aside, à la The Way We Were.

End / The Katie Couric Show 2012