SO STREISAND, SO SINATRA
“So Streisand, So Sinatra” represents fifteen of the most beautiful songs in the American repertoire and two lives hanging on one dream.
Synopsis
New York in 1968, the imaginary encounter between the crooner and the diva – created by the Broadway Station ensemble.
Barbra, at the height of her success, has just left the stage after her legendary concert in Central Park. After that, she arrives with her musicians in a small jazz club in New York for a drink.
There, she meets Frank Sinatra who is on his own with a glass of Jack Daniel’s in his hand. This is when his notoriety is weakening.
In short, it is in these circumstances that this imaginary encounter will take place, nourished by historical facts.
Broadway Station imagine this unique encounter, but it is above all, a great view on one’s self-encounter, which deeply moves the audience.
About “So Streisand, So Sinatra”
André Fornier and I imagined a scenario inspired by real facts: the setting is at the end of the 60s.
Sinatra at the age of 53, experienced a desert crossing: breaking up with Ava Gardner, ending his contract with MGM and his record company, the beginning of the rock genre… As a result, we find him depressed in a jazz club, face to face with his glass of Jack Daniels.
There enters Streisand; radiant, in her thirties. She comes to have a drink with her musicians after her Happening in Central Park. What is going to happen? Well, we will discover what is behind the masks, their share of shadows and lights. What makes them endearing, how they look like us, how unique they are.
FACTS
While reading about Streisand, we learned that she did not step on stage for 17 years! Moreover, she was threatened with death at the Central Park Happening in 1967 and returned on stage in 1984. That’s crazy, right?
It moved me a lot when I learned about it and that’s why I set the show in the 60s. We already had about thirty songs, so we chose those that echoed the situations and emotions that characterized them both. And then, talking about the life of artists, we might as well find a little bit of ours…
Press
Festival Beaujolais en Scène (Jazz Rhône Alpes, August 10th, 2018)
We are tonight at the Beaujolais Festival en Scène et en Musique. Is this the place with its hospitable hosts, is this the poster? Still, the public is plentiful, a record of 400 people for an amphitheater that only accommodates two hundred and fifty seats.
The public is seated – we added chairs, benches. It can begin.
Frédéric Gignoux who will be Frank “the voice” Sinatra tonight starts alone on the piano with My way and quickly stops, this top hit annoys him – we ask him every time. Enters then a young singer Barbra Streisand- Stéphanie Morales and thus begins a duet that never existed on stage. It is the theme of this show that to imagine the “real” meeting on stage of these two sacred monsters of the American show business. (In fact, they recorded a duet on the studio on I’ve Got A Crush On You).
MUSICIANS AND THOUGHTS
With the trio composed of Joachim Expert on the piano (and musical direction), Patrick Maradan on the double bass and Marc Michel on the drums, they revisit the repertoire of each and embellish a story. Therefore, the story is plausible and well put together.
We find a magical duet on the classic arch Over The Rainbow. “Barbra” offers us a sublime Memory. Frank rejuvenates with a new orchestration the hit New York New York. Throughout the concert, the staging and linked texts tell us a great story and present the atmosphere and characters. In other words, we are attending a real musical rather than a simple vocal jazz concert. The public is delighted and gets an encore with The Lady Is A Tramp!