Ann Hampton Calloway Sings the Streisand Songbook

On Mar. 6, The John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center was graced with the presence of the incomparable jazz singer, Ann Hampton Callaway, and the spectacular Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in a musical tribute to Barbra Streisand and some of the great Broadway Hits of the 20th Century.

This was the next to last stop on a six-city Southeast USA tour for Callaway and the Boston Pops Orchestra. The tour was sponsored by Fidelity Investments and covered Greenville, SC, Athens, GA, and four cities in Florida: Sarasota, West Palm Beach, Miami and St. Petersburg.

The first half of the concert featured the Esplanade Orchestra performing such musical theater favorites as the Overtures to "Gypsy" and "A Chorus Line," a specially arranged piece "Bernstein on Broadway," a medley from "A Little Night Music," and the theme songs from "Hello, Dolly!," "Ice Castles" and "New York, New York."

The Boston Pops is one of the most beloved and most frequently recorded orchestras in America and under the direction of conductor, Keith Lockhart, presented a full bodied and lush sound that more than pays tribute to the great musical comedies of the latter half of the 20th century.

The second half of the program focused on Callaway paying tribute to the legendary Barbra Streisand with The Streisand Songbook, a collection of 12 of the songs most associated with Streisand's career.

Callaway is not only an accomplished and award-winning jazz singer, she is also a composer of more than 250 songs for television, Broadway and several of today's leading interpreters of songs. Callaway has also had her compositions featured on the last six albums that Streisand has recorded.

The program opened with two of classic Streisand numbers from the '60s, "Starting Here, Starting Now" and Harold Arlen's "A Sleeping Bee." Callaway's vocals let the audience know right away that this was not going to be an evening of simply singing in the Streisand style as she made these two opening numbers very much her own with her distinctively warm and husky voice. She continued the program with two theme songs from Streisand films, "The Way We Were" and "Evergreen" ("A Star Is Born").

On her 1997 album, "Higher Ground," Streisand recorded the Callaway penned ballad "At the Same Time." When Callaway performed this with the Boston Pops orchestra, in many ways her rendition surpassed Streisand's recording of this song in emotional intensity and power and the majesty of the Boston Pops orchestra behind her made this a truly special moment of the evening.

Callaway continued the evening with the classic ballad "People" from "Funny Girl" in a medley with Sondheim's "Being Alive" and followed with a second medley of songs closely associated with the great Babs, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" and "Happy Days are Here Again."

In many ways, the film "Yentl" was the pinnacle of Streisand's career and no tribute would be complete without a number from this Academy Award-winning film in which Streisand not only starred but also produced, directed and helped adapt the screenplay. Callaway presented us with a version of "A Piece of Sky" that was impeccably performed.

The evening concluded with two encores from the Boston Pops Orchestra, the jazzy "42nd Street" and the perennial John Philip Sousa standard "The Stars and Stripes Forever" both of which were cheered wildly by the very appreciative Miami audience.