Review #1: ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand’ at The American Pops
Streisand came to DC for a quick pre-inauguration visit. Well almost, but not quite. Well, maybe my first sentence is a little bit of a “fake news” headline.
I am writing about a blissful, musically polished, bright one performance event with Luke Frazier the American Pops Orchestra, the ever-bubbly celeb Fran Drescher and oodles of way awesome talented Broadway and local singing talent.
Together all these forces made an easily demure Lisner Auditorium come very much alive before a large diverse audience at the forefront of DC area Barbra Streisand worship. Everyone was there to celebrate 75 years (jeez) of Barbra Streisand called Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand.
Even more, Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand was simply a terrific way to interrupt any recent dark gloom and to provide carry-over positive energy with rich music and heavenly voices full of love and longing presented with pizazz, personality and humor.
Conductor Luke Frazier. Photo courtesy of The American Pops.
Now, before specifics about the evening, if you are unfamiliar with Frazier and the APO – it was founded in 2015. Frazier’s aim is:
to breathe life into orchestral pops programming and inspiring new audience to discover the wealth of material in the Great American Songbook in dynamic ways.
To me that translates that Frazier and the APO have the Millennial spirit of disrupting the old ways. They want to reach-out to those who may have turned away from the string-dominated orchestra or those who never even considered a non-electric orchestra as one of their entertainment choices -given all the choices in this digital age.
Fran Drescher. Photo courtesy of her facebok page.
So now on with the show: Don’t Rain On My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand.
Fran Drescher hosted the evening with aplomb and self-deprecating humor. She not only introduced each of the seven singers and nearly 20 numbers – but enthusiastically “dished” with a high-wattage smile about her divorce and her single life status. She also spoke of her battle with cervical cancer, asking each audience member to take care of themselves.
The evening’s program was powered by the rich, lush, fine sound of the APO effortlessly conducted by Frazier with a ‘smooth baton.’ The APO includes violin, viola, cello, bass, harp, guitar, trumpet, trombone, horns. flute, clarinet, percussion and piano. I hate to pick out one instrument for mention, the sounds of the cello on this evening just struck me deeply as an instrument that vibrated love and pain.
The scrumptious singing talents included Broadway’s super talents:
