Barbara Cook at Kennedy Center

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 11:10pm

Is anyone going?? I just read about this concert in the Metro Express paper today and bought a ticket... there were only 2 left this a.m.!! I figured it would be an incredible experience to hear her live... she still sounds amazing at 84!

[Miranda3]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 11:54am

I envy your having the chance to go! I read just recently that she had a series of concerts scheduled around the country, but she had to postpone several of them, including the one in Vegas, due to a medication reaction. The Vegas one was to be an "experiment" to see if a veteran Broadway star of her type would draw there.

[Simon4]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 1:20pm

I'm going on Saturday night. Looks like some house seats opened up -- there are about ten tickets available now for tonight.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 1:29pm

I had tickets to see her last month in Los Angeles (at the VPAC). She had to postpone due to medication. However, she is rescheduled for June 30th and I am excited.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 9:13pm

You luckies who are seeing her, please report here after!

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 1:18am

What a glorious singer and storyteller she is. I am in awe. I can't believe she's 84... goes to show a gift like that shines through at any age. Highlights included "House of the Rising Sun," "Bye Bye Blackbird," "I Don't Want Love" (if it makes me lose my appetite... haha), "Georgia on My Mind"... so many. All the songs were love songs. She brought me to tears with her encore performance- John Lennon's "Imagine." She sang it without a mike and it was so raw, beautiful, and heartfelt. She was using a cane and said she could barely stand up five weeks ago due to a muscle injury... maybe that was the medication reaction? At 24, I was definitely about 50 years younger than most of the audience... but soo glad I went. I sat next to a lovely old man (who said he is 84 too) whose late wife's maiden name was Barbara Cook and he brought a photograph of his wife posing in front of a Barbara Cook marquis in San Francisco. So sweet. It was a very special show... I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know really anything about Barbara Cook until the Kennedy Center Honors telecast last year... but now I'm a huge fan:).

Updated On: 6/16/12 at 01:18 AM

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 4:51am

I had a ticket to see Cook here in Vegas last month. I believe it's now rescheduled for mid-August and I'm thrilled that she'll be here. Since tickets are so inexpensive and we rarely get performers of her caliber (though that's due to change, with the recent completion of the Smith Center), I might go on more than one night.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 8:53am

Harpz: Thanks for the report. Great to hear she is back on her feet, albeit with cane. Some of the songs you reported on (House of the Rising Sun and Bye Bye Blackbird) are, I think, new to her repertoire. May be wrong, as I have not seen her that often, but I love that she is adding new material if so. Will be eager to here from Mormon after Vegas!

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 9:45am

Yes, most of the songs she said she just learned... she says she watches songs on youtube and stays up late searching videos and then starts to convince herself she should sing those songs. After a whole bunch of these songs she said, "You guys are probably like, 'What the hell are you doing, Barbara? When are you gonna sing some Sondheim?" She only sang one Sondheim song... I didn't know it- something about love and life. It was beautiful. Some people on the shuttle after were saying that sitting up close they could tell she was in a lot of pain and that she had a wheelchair ready for her backstage.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 10:56am

What a spirit, to be learning new material in her 80s and to be touring with it. I had not heard of her being injured, just that she was sidelined due to the medication reaction. Now am thinking it might have been pain medication for an injury, given the wheelchair waiting in the wings. She has rebounded from a lot in her life, so I hope she can rebound from this too.

As posted last year on this board, her memoir (co-written with NYT theater critic C. Isherwood) is due out this fall. Can't wait for that!

Updated On: 6/16/12 at 10:56 AM

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 1:37pm

What a wonderful woman and performer to keep stretching her repertoire when so many others would be resting on their laurels! Definitely looking forward to her memoirs!