New York performer flexes impersonation muscles in show devoted to Streisand

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This article was published 21/07/2015 (3740 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The man is the one and only Funny Girl.

New Yorker Steve Brinberg has been the called the leading Barbra Streisand impersonator — just don’t call his tribute a drag show. He prefers to think of himself as an actor in costume playing Babs, the American entertainment icon.

“I do my best to look as much as I can like her,” he says over the phone. “My sound is what sets me apart. Any guy with a big nose can put on a wig and lip-sync to Barbra. There is no one else who does it live, at least not male.”

Brinberg is making his Canadian debut in Winnipeg with Simply Barbra, an hour-long cabaret filled with banter and singing to recorded background musical tracks. It’s been more than 20 years since he uttered his first, ‘Hello, gorgeous’ onstage and he has been all over the world, in more cities and performing more shows than Streisand herself.

“It’s fun because it is always changing,” he says. “Whatever is happening to her is going into the show. It’s very handy playing someone who is very much alive and busy. She gives me an endless supply of material.”

Streisand has not seen Simply Barbra, but Brinberg believes he has her tacit approval, because he was once asked to serve as her stand-in at the 60th birthday party of her pal, the fashion designer Donna Karan, in 2008. It seems people who have people to replace them are the luckiest people in the world.

“She even directed my performance over the telephone, through someone telling me to say, ‘Hey Donna, do you remember those flammable sweaters?’” recalls Brinberg. “I didn’t know what that was about, but some personal thing between them.”

There is an enduring fascination with Streisand, the first person to win Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards. It has been 51 years since her Broadway debut in Funny Girl and a thriving homage industry has grown up around her, with celebrity impersonators trying to capture her visually and vocally.

“The fascination is probably because she has done everything you can do in show business,” he says. “She has been an icon for so long and is in a class by herself. She has been famous since she was 18 and now she’s 73.”

Simply Barbra offers an opportunity to see the publicity-shy singer be a little more chatty than she usually is in concert. Fans can expect to hear most of their Streisand favourites — Don’t Rain on My Parade, People, The Way We Were and Evergreen. For Canadians he will add references to her romance with prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who looked ready to make her “the first lady of Canada.”

“You get to feel like you are going to see her,” says Brinberg, who saw Streisand in concert last year. “Or as someone once said, ‘It’s Barbra at prices you can afford.’ Usually her tickets are out of control.”

Brinberg frankly admits he is not the most accurate Barbra look-alike. He attempts to emulate her present-day look — the black clothing, blond hair and the long nails — and applies more eye makeup than she wears to suggest her younger look.

“I find after singing for a bit and having every gesture and intonation in her voice, the audience falls under the spell that they are watching her. You forget I’m not a dead ringer and the singing takes over.”

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He had a gift for imitation from an early age. The target was usually friends and teachers, although Streisand was a favourite even then. Although his natural voice can be found somewhere between a high baritone and low tenor, he can still duplicate her mezzo-soprano. His father once found a cassette tape of Brinberg singing like Barbra and thought it was the real thing.

The most famous male he could impersonate was the British vocalist Anthony Newley and that was never going to be profitable — even in England.

“Male stars, in general, are not as larger-than-life as female stars. Because of the dresses, there is more to look at.

“I always loved Sammy Davis Jr., but I couldn’t do him even if I sounded like him.”

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca