Product Details

• Actors: Barbra Streisand
• Directors: Scott Lochmus
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Columbia
• DVD Release Date: May 4, 2010
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003BZXI1O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,461 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Barbra Streisand live at the Village Vanguard, New York's legendary jazz club. In September 2009, 48 years after her last club performance, a select group of fans and friends had the rare opportunity to experience Barbra in this ultimate up-close-and-personal setting. Accompanied only by piano, bass, guitar and drums, this is the artist at her most intimate. The deluxe version includes both a CD and DVD of the unforgettable live performance.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of the ampi-theaters and into the Village Vanguard. Who'da thunk it? Well, Barbra did. May 9, 2010

By PatrickO VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Whether it was nostalgia or just a great idea to promote her new record with Diana Krall, Barbra's one night at the Village Vanguard, a 123-seat, 74-year-old jazz club in Greenwich Village, captures an intimate example of her ability to connect with an audience. I live in NYC, but wasn't lucky enough to attend. However, I got to see Ms. Streisand in 2006 at Madison Square Garden and was front and center as a kid at Arizona's Sun Devil Stadium in March 1976 when she put on a one-day concert event to film for her "A Star is Born," film. In both cases, the audience of thousands just shut up and listened when she sang. In the case of Sun Devil Stadium that included a lot of drugged out teens and adults there to rock out to Peter Frampton and other acts.

Here she scales back her famous voice and personality to fit the venue and gives back to her fans a sample of what it was like in the early '60s to have heard her sing in one of the many nightclubs around the US where she got her start. Along the way, she covers a few of her standards, but more importantly some others that are not so famous, but equally great. "Spring is here," which she once sang on the Tonight Show is a highlight. Just a beautiful song of hope, love and loss. She's in great voice here and hits some amazing notes. If she misses a couple of others, who cares? She certainly goes for it on several songs like the "Way We Were." That's part of the experience of seeing someone live. I think it's good she didn't clean everything up too much in post-production. And what makes her so great is her ability to act songs.

Along the way, she introduces the rich and famous who attended, along with the lucky contest winners. This include President Clinton, his wife, our Secretary of State, Nicole Kidman, SJP, Donna Karan, and her husband, James Brolin. She also introduces or is introduced by, a lot of people who where or are old friends and have stayed with her for almost 50 years. One of the things that comes across about Ms. Streisand is her incredible loyalty to the people who are loyal to her. She doesn't say much about it, but she also uses her talent and resources to support multiple charitable causes through her own foundation. She puts her money where her mouth is. No matter what you think of her politics, Barbra Streisand tries to make the world a better place. If we were all as socially conscious, the world would be a much better place.

So, if you're just a casual fan thinking this might be a boring paint-by-numbers event that was thrown together to promote her album, you'd make a mistake not to buy it. It's just like being there in the audience. It was a master-stroke by Ms. Streisand to do this and making things that are old entirely new again. Oh, and she also looks nice.

And to the person who said her husband looks bored - sorry, I honestly don't know what you're talking about. An amazing young actor named Ashton (HBO's The Pacific, and A History of Violence) Holmes sits to his right during the performance, by the way.

Overall, the evening presents an eclectic mix of people and songs. The star likely planned it that way and comes up with something her fans will love and even casual fans will really enjoy. Now, if she will just consider making another movie or two worthy of her great talent ... :)

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Taken by surprise... May 6, 2010

By Dennis L. Hammer

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Barbra -- have for years. "Love is the Answer" is one of my favorite of her recent albums. But there were moments in this new Streisand DVD that took even this ardent Streisand fan by surprise. Her voice has always been a combination of technical amazement and an actors' instinct of time and place. All that is in abundance here -- an actor in an intimate space, surrounded by more peers than fans and with no BS allowed. You can fully see Barbra "sensing" it -- that vibe that says "Be real." That's what makes this DVD one of her greatest performances. It has a roughness in both voice and intimacy that excites. Her career, always a balance of commercial success and artistry, is in full view here. I urge you to share this DVD with your friends, your children and especially anyone who wants to be in "The Show Business" because here is captured an exciting record of countless years of fame, awards and acclaim distilled in a small New York club, with sensational songs, marvelous musicians, and that rarest of all things -- an artist in her prime and still fully in her game. Brava Barbra!

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Privilege April 24, 2010

By Richard B. Green VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Of course we're all writing in advance of the release of this DVD or DVD/CD combo; but before her single or double CD was released last year, I found, here on AOL, that I was able to view five of the selections from her new album in this venue now being released as a DVD. It was magic seeing and hearing her; she looked lovely and seemed quite at home in the intimate setting she chose to present her new work. At that time I anxiously awaited the release of the double CD that is now in my collection. Today, as I write this, Barbra is celebrating her 68th birthday. While I'm sure we fans wish her many more, what a body of work she has to look back on from over the last forty-five or more years! My favorite Barbra has always been her presentation of the standards; the songs she covers on this new DVD don't disappoint. Very low-key, seldom straining a voice that doesn't quite do what it did when she was nineteen, she can still just send shivers down one's spine..."Some Other Time" is a good example of her causing this reaction from me. This gorgeous Leonard Bernstein classic is immediately claimed by Barbra as hers alone. And what a kick to have her, at least on the CDs, drawing on the talents of Diana Krall as Barbra takes a new direction in her recording. Diana is a favorite of mine, and I was thrilled, prior to the release of the album, to read the two were working together. I hope it's not the only time they do this. Anyhow, my pre-order is in...but just for the DVD, for the CD will simply be near-identical to the album(s) I already own. I love watching Barbra as she sings. And, in the intimacy of the Village Vanguard, she once again shines before an audience.