Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Way We Are



Madison Square Garden, New York City

Barbra performed for over two hours tonight to 30,000 people including Oprah, Rosie, Al Pacino. And me.

So, I took the B train ( C train, for those of you who are paying attention to reality, is out of commission until the end of the month ) down to 34th Street, and walked up from Penn Station to Madison Square Garden. I was immediately in a crush of people as I clutched my internet ticket and tried to figure out on what level I needed to jump off the escalator. It's like going to Yankee Stadium. You walk along with the throngs, and then, magically, you're in the right section amidst hundreds of possible sections.

I handed my ticket to an usher, and was taken to a seat directly center stage, elevated about 6 feet, and about 200 yards from the stage. The stage had three staircases, stage left, center, and stage right. There were red roses on center stage, and yellow roses on both stages right and left.

I sat down next to two men. The one on my left wore a cotton shirt with open collar, wire rimmed glasses, had a bit of a belly. The guy on my right: rimless glasses, black hair, collar length with a white streak in his bangs. He carried binoculars. Both men had an accent, an English accent. Turns out, I was the only American in the entire row. Who knew? We tried to figure out if it was the way we had accessed the website IMMEDIATELY when the tickets went on sale months ago. We didn't resolve it. But, it was interesting to be with 15 people who had come across the "pond" just to see Babs. I'm not sure I would travel 6 hours across the continent just to see--even Barbara.

The perfomance, well, you've probably already read or heard accounts. Here's mine. She's still got a voice that is pristine, important, and absolutely lovely to listen to. Barbra sang from "Funny Girl", "Evergreen" and many more.

Final thought: I can die now. Going to this concert was one of those things I've always wanted to do, and when she announced the tour, I decided it was now or never because she is 64, and most voices start to lose some of their vibrancy after 50 or so. But, she was wonderful. The audience ( less one heckler who got his money back after she told hime to F off ) was demoographically between 45 and 65--plus there was no smoke coming from audience members ala rock concert gigs, if you know what I mean. It was a pretty subdued, sort of 50s crowd.

Thanks, Babs. You've been part of the fabric of my life. Nice job.

M.C.

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