Happy 35th Anniversary to Barbra Streisand’s twenty-fourth studio album The Broadway Album, originally released November 4, 1985.
Broadway has always fascinated me.
Maybe it’s just that it is yet another quintessential American phenomenon that has been so ingrained into my psyche and for so long, that even though I am not American, it somehow feels so familiar and in some way also mine.
Maybe it was like so many American things, the place where dreams were made, where everything seemed bigger and better than the rest of the world, especially for an out-of-place kid like me, from a sleepy city at the bottom of Australia, where 15 minutes from the city, Kangaroos move freely between vast plains of green and the sound of the Kookaburras heralding in yet another day seem as familiar as the musical genius that Broadway has given to so many, for so long. The juxtaposition between these things is immense and yet somehow, wildly in sync.
Barbra Streisand’s music is yet another one of those things so familiar to me that when I am greeted with someone who isn’t quite sure of who she is, let alone trying to place one of her songs, I find myself still caught off guard and not quite sure how to respond. Usually I reference either a movie, a song or, of course, a Broadway musical. How could I not? After all, Broadway is the place that gave Ms. Streisand her start. The pounding of the wooden boards, endless hours of learning lines and making sure her voice was in top form, because there wasn’t room for mistakes, this was live theatre and you only get one shot. One shot to evoke emotion in an audience staring up at you, hanging on to your every word, awaiting that moment when, POW! You are hit with such emotional force, that you are forever changed. That is the power that only Broadway and live theatre can evoke.
In 1985, Streisand returned to her roots with the release of her twenty-fourth album, The Broadway Album. Having decided that Broadway musicals were no longer in the same league as some of the more commercial music dominating the charts in the early ‘70s, Streisand ended up taking an unforeseen fifteen-year break from Broadway and show tunes. This return to her “roots” was a shock to many, worrisome for some, but ultimately a massive success, both critically and commercially.
Calling on longtime friend and legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the album’s twelve tracks are dominated with his music and by his words, both in a solo capacity and also as a co-writer, penning additional lyrics at the request of Streisand for “Putting it Together” and “Send in the Clowns.”
The original album, which consisted of eleven tracks, was given an extra with the CD release (“Adelaide’s Lament”) and when the album was re-released back in 2002, “I Know Him So Well” was also added, giving this already timeless album even more reason for fans to hear Streisand’s interpretations of two more American standards.
Having never had much to do with Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, et al, it seemed that Streisand had finally found an inner confidence to tackle music that had, for whatever reason, eluded her up until this point of her career. Covering songs like the album opening “Putting It Together,” “If I Loved You” from Carousel, “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from Show Boat and an incredibly beautiful medley from Porgy and Bess, Streisand yet again proved that she is one of Broadway’s finest musical interpreters.
Arguably the album’s most successful single release was Streisand’s interpretation of Sondheim’s “Send In the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. I have an incredibly vivid memory of this song and my Oma, who was showing me a photo of her and three friends in ‘40s Germany. The black and white image showed four beautiful young women looking straight into the lens, smiling, and yet there was also something so hauntingly dark about the image. One day as my Oma put on her afternoon daily record, either classical music or show tunes, “Send In The Clowns” danced through the speakers and into our living room. I asked Oma “where are these friends now?” With a soft whisper she responded “I don’t know. I never saw them again.” I have always associated this song with loss, no matter the type. Streisand’s version is the most painstakingly beautiful one, evoking something different in me each and every time I listen to it.
Another standout track is the medley track of “Pretty Women/ The Ladies Who Lunch” from Sweeney Todd and Company, respectively. Yet more Sondheim music that only further cements not only the familiarity Streisand has with his music, but her ability to interpret it in a way that is uniquely Streisand’s. In an interview with the New York Times in 1985, Streisand told writer Stephen Holden: ''One reason I made The Broadway Album is that I felt I had to stop recording songs that any number of other people could sing as well if not better than I could. It was time for me to do something I truly believed in. This is the music I love, it is where I came from, it is my roots.”
Very few do it better than Ms. Streisand, if any at all. Returning to what she knew provided not just another hit for the singer, but an album that thirty-five years later, is just as beautiful and complex as it was when I was a ten-year-old child.
In fact, it’s even better.
LISTEN: