Streisand / LIVE 

Barbra’s MGM Grand Millennium show was titled Timeless … and it was very different from her 1994 concert tour. Instead of a Jeffersonian sitting room, the Timeless set was huge, with a pyramid, a cast of four, three backup singers, moving jumbotron screens, and sophisticated lighting.

Around June of 1999, stories began appearing in the entertainment columns about John Travolta possibly appearing on stage with Barbra for her New Year’s Eve concert. “Well, I was going to fly my plane personally to different places around the world” for NYE, Travolta told Liz Smith, “but now I have other plans!” Travolta singing a few numbers with Streisand never came to pass, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, Hamlisch and Streisand began rehearsing for the turn-of-the-century show in August 1999. Rehearsals would ultimately last five weeks. Also, Barbra completed work on her Columbia Records studio album, A Love Like Ours, which was released to stores on September 21st.

Rosie O'Donnell interviewed Barbra on her television show, which aired November 16th. Rosie asked Barbra about the upcoming concert:

RO: Will it be much different from the last tour? 

BJS: I don't know how big a tour this is gonna be, but I think we're gonna do a second night, because we've had a lot of people ask for more tickets, and we don't have any more. 

RO: It's in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve. Are you a little worried about Y2K? No? 

BJS: No. You know...what could happen? All the lights go out and sound goes out. We'll all light a candle, and I'll sing without a mike.

Streisand and her team created the show throughout rehearsals, discovering which songs worked best in which order.  For instance, in the “Broadway section” of the first act, Streisand considered singing “Some Enchanted Evening” and “All I Ask of You.”  In the nightclub section, she rehearsed “When Sunny Gets Blue.”

Also, in the first act, Barbra rehearsed “By the Way” (which she wrote the lyrics for – and which she didn’t sing live until 2016.)

During rehearsals, the second act songs included “Everything Must Change” before “On A Clear Day” ... “Isn't It A Pity” and “The Music That Makes Me Dance” in the “I've Dreamed of You”/Jim Brolin section ... and “I Believe/You'll Never Walk Alone” instead of “I Believe/Somewhere.”

Barbra's A&R man, Jay Landers, related a story about Streisand stopping rehearsal to investigate the lyric to the Burt Bacharach song “Alfie.”

 “Tell me something,” Barbra asked, “that line, ‘What will you lend on an old golden rule’—what’s it supposed to mean?” Landers replied, “You know…the Golden Rule… do unto others.”  But Barbra argued, “I know what the Golden Rule is, but what does it mean ‘to lend on’? — is it like ‘lending’? Like getting a loan at a bank? I don’t get it!.” 

So Jay Landers called Hal David, the lyricist ... in China! Hal David confessed: Hal continued, “I was just singing words to fill in the space in Burt’s melody. I sang, ‘What do you lend on an old golden rule’ like a placeholder. But Burt liked it…he didn’t want me to change it, and that’s the story. It's sort of an interesting lyric and no one’s ever asked me what it's supposed to mean before.” Then he added, “You could tell her it’s one of those lines that’s open to interpretation.”  

Lauren Frost recalled, “It was such a thrill to hear Barbra sing throughout rehearsals. It was a private concert every night! At the end of December, we did a private performance for about 350 of Barbra's closest personal and celebrity friends and family. Then it was on to Las Vegas for more rehearsals and the opening shows.”

Before Barbra’s dress rehearsal, however, a big announcement was made – Streisand would sing in concert in Australia for the first time ever! The announcement was made December 10, 1999 and tickets went on sale December 18th.

“I first auditioned for Barbra's tour in August of 1999,” said Lauren Frost, who portrayed a young Barbra Streisand in the concert.  Frost told BarbraNews.com. “I was told the audition was for a secret pilot project, and I didn't even know that Barbra was involved for a very long time.”

Frost explained that “Rehearsals started in November, right after Thanksgiving. For about five weeks, I worked with Marvin [Hamlisch], Kenny [Ortega], Randee Heller and Alec Ledd (the other actors), all the best orchestra musicians and, of course, Barbra.” 

Actress Randee Heller was cast as Barbra's mother in Timeless. Most television viewers know her in the Emmy-nominated role of Miss Blankenship on Mad Men.  Heller told Vulture.com, “[Barbra's] real mother was there; she was in her 90s in a wheelchair. I don’t even think she was aware of what was going on. So you get onstage with this 75-piece orchestra, and it would just blow you away. 50,000 people!”

Heller described Streisand, too: “Some people are funny onstage or on-camera, and then they’re the most serious people in the world. She’s funny all the time. She’s a naturally kinetic soul. And, um, she loved the stock market. She wouldn’t go out at night, because she’d say, ‘I have to get up in a couple of hours and [check] on the stock market.’ I think she liked that more than singing at the time.”

Alec Ledd (Alaa Khaled) played Streisand's pianist in the opening scene, and in one scene in the second act. He was called into audition for a secret movie-of-the-week which was called Maybe Marsha. His call-back and eventual casting, however, was at Barbra Streisand's house. “They take us into what she calls Grandma's House [...] across the room, wearing a salmon-colored, chenille cowlick sweater, leaning on the couch—it's Barbra Streisand,” Ledd recalled to the KCRW Strangers podcast. “She sort-of starts improvising, without even knowing she's improvising, because she's not familiar with the dialogue. One of my backgrounds is improv. So she starts doing her dialogue, and I start changing mine up, making it more that what it is, and she's like ‘Oh, that's good. Oh, let's write that down.’ About an hour and twenty minutes later we're done.”

Barbra’s three backup singers for Timeless were hired because of singer Peggi Blu.  “The last Broadway show I did in New York was directed by Kenny Ortega,” Blu told BarbraNews.com “Kenny was hired as the director of Barbra's Millennium Show and he called me and asked me to get two other singers that I wanted to work with. I contacted two of my favorites – Bridgette Bryant and Kellie Coffey. The three of us went and sang for Barbra, got hired on the spot, and were asked to come back to rehearsal the very next day. And the rest is, as they say, ‘Millennium Show History’.”

Timeless backup singer Kellie Coffey recalled Streisand coming up to her at a rehearsal and asking, “Why is this so hard?”

“Here I was, giving her this pep talk,” Coffey said. “I was like, ‘You're Barbra Streisand and they love you and you can do it!’ Then she goes out there and it's BARBRA, and she sings like someone from another planet. She's gifted. It's interesting that she doesn't know that sometimes.”

Pictured Above:  Randee Heller, Streisand, Lauren Frost, and Alec Ledd