Customer Reviews

Color Me Barbra

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PBS replayed this special a few years ago. My mom is a fan so I watched it with her. Wow! As a music video, it was years ahead of it's time and MTV. This is Barbara at her best! Color me, "Tickled pink."

There seems to be a time in a performer's life when either the life/passion/drive leaves them or else they mature - or is it both...are they the same? After the mid 1970's Barbra Streisand left the world of Artist and became something else...something less vital and less driven by the blood that runs through her.
Thank god for video. If you want to see what all the hoopla was about - see this. This is her frist TV special and BOY is it special. It shows a young, passionate artist who had a voice, a style and a command for every nuance a song could have all rolled up into one awkward yet facinating Barbra. This is a wonderful mixture of comic kookiness, entertainer and pure artist at work. Barbra - please come back!

A year after her triumphant first special, "My Name Is Barbra", Barbra Streisand regrouped with her production team to produce this follow-up CBS-TV special in then-revolutionary color. First broadcast in March 1966, "Color Me Barbra" follows a similar format to its predecessor - three segments, the first two with unique concepts. The first takes place in the after-hours halls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art where dressed as a period maid, she roams the galleries and becomes part of the artwork through song. In various guises, Streisand expresses a variety of moods from the comedy schtick of the "Minute Waltz" to the melodrama of "Non C'est Rien" in a Modigliani painting to the beatnik-style frenzy of "Gotta Move" set to abstract art. My favorite moment in the special is when she transforms into a dead ringer of Queen Nefertiti while singing a haunting rendition of Rogers and Hart's "Where or When".

Opening with another comic monologue full of silly non-sequiturs, this time in French, the second segment is back in the studio for a brightly-colored circus medley where she interacts with animals, including her beloved poodle Sadie. She finds an appropriate context for "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long" with a bevy of penguins and comically compares her profile to an anteater's with "We Have So Much in Common". As with the first special, the program ends with a riveting solo concert in which she sings some chestnuts, "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home", "Where Am I Going?" and "Starting Here, Starting Now" among them. Also included is the brief introduction she filmed in 1986, ironically dressed in all-white, when the special was first released on VHS. The juxtaposition of locale and song is even more effective than in her first special, and a 23-year old Streisand is in peak form.

Streisand doing what she and only she does best SING. Great sets and colorful costumes, but the real star is Babs herself. Highly recommended.

On March 30th, 1966...... Barbara Streisand's second television special for CBS had millions of Americans searching for a friend that owned a color television set. By the mid 60's, Streisand was being heralded as the greatest diva America had seen in ages. She had created a stir among both young and old that matched Beatlemania. Her first television special, "My Name Is Barbara" had won five Emmy awards. Now, we were going to see her on televison in full color for the first time. "Color Me Barbara" was a national event that matched the passionate artistic flair of her first special in every respect. When we viewed and heard Streisand singing to the strange, haunting opening animation of "Draw Me A Circle" at the very opening of the show...... we all knew that we were in for a great hour of television. This was 1960's television production at it's finest. You had to have been there.....

Streisand doing what she and only she does best SING. Great sets and colorful costumes, but the real star is Babs herself. Highly recommended.

Although this Brazillian bootleg DVD was the only way one could watch "My Name Is Barbra", it is worth waiting for the official DVD of Streisand's first television special, which is due from Rhino Home Video in November 2005. An entire box set of Streisand's first five television specials (1965-1973) is due from Rhino. This Brazillian DVD looks like they simply transfered the Laser Disc of the 1986 home video release. Quality is not fantastic.

This is Barbra Streisand's second television special. She filmed it in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it is a very nice musical special. Not as many jokes but more music and the singing is great. The confidence is striking and she really knows how to make art.

Following the tremendous success of Barbra Streisand's first TV special came her second called "Color Me Barbra" that originally aired on CBS March 30, 1966 and in living color which was a novelty at the time. The special would spawn the album of the same name and go all the way to #3 on the Billboard Pop Charts.

Like her first special Barbra had no guest-stars, just herself performing some of the greatest pop standards of all-time including "Yesterdays", "Where or When", and the wonderful nine minute medley with songs including "What's New Pussycat?", "Funny Face", and "Animal Crackers in My Soup". The gem in the special is Streisand's stirring rendition of "Starting Here, Starting Now".

"Color Me Barbra" is available as a stand alone DVD disc or it is available as part of the beautiful deluxe box set "Streisand: The Television Specials".

Originally telecast on Wednesday March 30,1966, this was Barbra Streisand's follow up to her acclaimed television special of the prior year "My Name is Barbra". The same crew was used; Joe Layton produced and choreographed, Dwight Hemion directed, Peter Matz was the musical arranger and conductor, and Robert Emmett wrote her monologues. Again it would be divided into three segments or acts, including one location shoot, and a straight concert segment for the conclusion. Finally, just as before, Ms. Streisand would be the sole star. Both are so alike that she herself referred to them as "my bookends", the only appreciable difference being this one would be filmed in color hence the title "Color Me Barbra".

The opening sequence is inspired, a blank shocking pink screen while the off camera Ms. Streisand sings in sweetly piercing tones, "Draw Me A Circle", a circle is drawn by an invisible hand, like a more sophisticated Etch-a-Sketch. It's a cartoon or caricature of a face; the features are filled in to match the song's lyrics. At the conclusion there is a charming, brightly colored sketch of Streisand's face, which will be the show's logo, on the last words it fades into her real face. A tip of the hat to Elinor Bunin who was the creator.

The first act is set in the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Ms. Streisand clad in a floor length black gown with a gauzy white apron over it, hair piled high on her head explores a multitude of delights. And what a treasure trove it is, ceiling to floor medieval tapestries, a huge Alexander Calder mobile, period rooms from Louis XVI, Moorish arches, ancient Egyptian artifacts, masterpieces by Sargent, Renoir and Modigliani, stark contemporary art. As she sings her songs, "Yesterdays", "One Kiss", "The Minute Waltz", "Gotta Move!" "Non, C'est Rien" and "Where or When", she will literally become part of a painting or exhibit. For example in performing "Non, C'est Rien", Streisand becomes the model in Modigliani's "Portrait of a Polish Woman". In it's time, this was very original, very clever, pre MTV, the music and the art complement each other, and it is over before the novelty wears off. My personal favorites "Gotta Move!" set in a modern art section, I'm not a fan of that particular style, but liked the pulsing, frenetic beat, complete with bongos, Streisand edgy and stiletto sharp in diction and appearance in best mid Sixties op-art fashion, down to the boldly patterned rainbow hued dress and sequined eyelids. The second is "Where or When" which Streisand sings in a halting, yearning manner sitting on the edge of a reflecting pool in an age- old Egyptian room. As she sings the first few lines gazing at her reflection in the water, she stirs it with her finger, as the water ripples, her image metamorphoses into a classic queen of the Nile, complete with regal headdress. At the song's conclusion she is in profile, and the camera pulls back to take in the entire room, and to the right of Streisand is the world famous bust of the legendary Egyptioan Queen Nefertiti in profile. Ms. Streisand's profile at times had been compared to Nefertiti's, and this was an inspired tongue in cheek acknowledgement.

Act Two, Streisand introduces us to her white poodle Sadie and performs a semi-amusing monologue on animals and pets, which continues into a medley set in a pink and orange circus ring complete with animals galore, a baby elephant, llama, pony, penguins, pigs, a tiger. As she interacts with the menagerie, she sings songs appropriate to the animal and the situation. A truly funny moment is when both she and an anteater face each other in profile, while she sings a line from the song "Small World" - "We have so much in common it's a phenomenon...". This is quite witty, her profile compared to Nefertiti's first, then an anteater's going from the sublime to the ridiculous! All in all, light, easy, and entertaining, the animals are cute, especially a band of adorable penguins who jump out of their open pen, and Streisand seems to have a good time with all of them.

Finally a concert to a live studio audience culled from her fan clubs, who are yelling bravo before she even sings a note. Ms. Streisand first poised on a freestanding white curved stairway looks very attractive in a simple sleeveless white evening gown as she launches zestfully into Harold Arlen's wonderful "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home." There follows a slow, introspective, version of "It Had to Be You", which provides an interesting contrast with Harry Connick Jr.'s more recent zippier rendition. While I like them both, I think Streisand's wins. She's quite sexy, showing off her curves in her clinging white as she reclines languorously on a bench to coo "C'est Si Bon." As her finale she rips into the pulsating "Where Am I Going?" from the then current Broadway musical "Sweet Charity", it's a challenging, rangy number to which she does full justice, although it's a little over the top. The encore "Starting Here, Starting Now" while the credits roll along side her is beautifully done and Streisand takes off, soaring lightly and effortlessly with the music. This was a favorite of my wife and myself we had it played and sung by our soloist before our wedding began, so her rendition links a golden memory for me.

Ms. Streisand is simply wonderful, in superb voice, doing full justice to her varied repetoire. She's funny, full of high spirits, yet can switch easily to a dramatic intensity. She looks great in her various getups, except in the circus sequence, a radioactive orange mistake. The bottom line she's mesmerizing, and carries the weight of the entire show lightly on her shoulders.

As marvelous as Ms. Streisand is, she didn't do it alone, bravos to the production team mentioned earlier particularly to Joe Layton, whose fresh creative vision shaped the specials helping to make them unique, and Peter Matz who arranged such exciting, innovative musical arrangements, breathing fresh life into old standards and making new songs sparkle, not just here but in her early albums as well. Together coupled with Streisand's natural talent a scintillating star conquered the television world.

I'm not a fan of the current Ms. Streisand for various reasons, and haven't been for some time, but I can still appreciate the artistry and glory of her first decade in show business. If you want to see why Barbra Streisand caused such a sensation in the entertainment world back in the 1960's, why everyone was talking about her, watch "Color Me Barbra" and it's predecessor "My Name Is Barbra", and you'll know.