I saw her concert tonight. She was in fine voice, but she did jazzy tunes, no theater songs. She said she will continue to sing jazz songs for awhile in our future concerts.
Yes, she had some surprise guests. She had artists serenade her after she was done performing. One was Susan Graham, another was a couple I don't know who they are, another is a composer I never heard of, and Josh Groban. They all sang one song. The reason I didn't post it is I don't know the title of the song he sang, I believe it was a Sondheim song though. It would be instantly recognizable to anyone here but me...
JJC: Thanks for posting the wonderful Holden review. I just saw that BC is coming out west in February. Will see her then. I hope it's a a similarly semi-jazz-based show. I love how she is still reinventing.
I first saw Barbara in THE GAY LIFE as a kid the weekend it was closing in 1962. Seeing her at 85 was an amazing experience, and she can sing jazz or anything she wants to and is still amazing.
Link below is to a 10/16 Wall Street Journal interview with Barbara Cook about her life after Broadway. She mentions in the article that she's a late-night YouTube addict.
At the performance, she spent quite a bit of time saying how addicted to YouTube she was-- I loved it. She also mentioned a song she wanted to sing that she found on YouTube, but decided not to sing it at Carnegie Hall-- "If My Nose Was Runnin' Money, I'd Blow It All On You"...
Patrick: She probably could have carried it off, right? I watch her Melbourne performance of "It's Not Where You Start" on YouTube often. It's a full orchestra version that I prefer to the different one I have on disc.
Should could have totally pulled it off. Is the recording you have of "It's Not Where You Start" from her performance at the Met? I quite like that one.
Patrick: The one I have on disc is from "Barbara Cook's Broadway," a live Lincoln Center performance. I like it a lot, but I just like the Melbourne version of that one song better with the full orchestra. However, in the live performance, I love her between-song stories and comments. She is very funny and is self-deprecating at the same time that she seems very confident and self-aware.