Streisand Gets Strung Up on ‘Broadway’

BARBRA STREISAND

“Back to Broadway”

Columbia

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If this follow-up to the 1985 blockbuster “The Broadway Album” is any indication, Streisand’s musical vision appears to be getting more grandiose by the minute. Her selection of material, ranging from Gershwin and Loesser to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber, is technically and emotionally demanding. The music is lavishly arranged and produced, meticulously recorded and in some instances gorgeously sung. But too often the album seems in danger of collapsing under its own overweening ambitions.

Streisand’s readings of the familiar melodies of “Speak Low,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “The Man I Love” and the tricky rhythms of “Everybody Says Don’t” are mature, expressive interpretations. Her duets with Michael Crawford on “Music of the Night” and Johnny Mathis on “I Have a Love/One Heart” bring new life to both songs. In each case, however, her carefully focused interpretations are eventually almost washed away by waves of orchestral sound.

On other numbers, such as “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” “With One Look” (from “Sunset Boulevard”) and “Children Will Listen,” Streisand’s skills can’t survive the massive orchestrations. She’s reduced to pushing her voice past its comfortable limits.

How much better this album would have been had she (and producer David Foster) simply taken the politically correct, ‘90s approach of slashing their budget in half. Streisand’s talent simply doesn’t need this excessive ornamentation.