The Barbara Cook Appreciation Thread

[Amalia Balash]

Thanks so much for sharing, PalJoey. Great clip that doesn't just show her wonderful interpretative skills, but also, at the beginning, a glimpse of her humor.

[The Other One]

The song is not on the "Better With a Band" CD, but her studio recording can be heard on the earlier CD "As of Today".

She sings it so beautifully. Thanks yet again for the post.

[kyle33nyc]

I loved the show. It isn't perfect, but a great deal of fun for Sondheim fans. Probably wouldn't take a casual theatergoer to see it.

But about Barbara: it was pure joy to see her live again. That she can still sing and perform so strongly is amazing. She just gives and gives. While Donna Murphy is the definitive Fosca, I was amazed at how quickly Barbara could transform herself into the character with just a shawl. She feels the music, and sings with such conviction and heart.

I thought Vanessa Williams was really good, and only improved when singing with Ms. Cook. And I think that's what I loved most about the show - seeing the legend perform as a cast member rather than a concert soloist. She is exceptional at sharing her full talent while remaining a team player.

And she's hilarious.

Best show I saw while in NYC...

[bfwndtd]

i didn't get to see her at the stage door. i heard her perform a one woman "mostly sondeheim" show a few years ago. it was Sondheim songs as well as some of his favorites that other ppl wrote. She sang "ice cream" during that concert. one of the few times I saw someone get a standing ovation in the middle of a concert instead of just at he end. she was incredible! saw her today and she is still delightful at 83.

[raker]

I was fortunate to see Barbara Cook perform many times in the 80s. Two memorable shows were her appearance with Mel Torme at Symphony Hall in Boston, and with Bobby Short at the South Shore Music Theater.

Check out the DVD of her performances on The Bell Telephone Hour. She was in her youth, in her prime. Perfection.

[PalJoey]

I'll post her performance of "It's Better with a Band" from that concert tomorrow morning.

[PalJoey]

It's Better with a Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kON3xx65oaQ

[The Other One]

She and Susan Stroman look so much alike, don't they?

Great performance by Barbara. Thanks for the post!

[benrimalower]

I broke down the Barbara love a bit in my new blog:

http://www.akawilliam.com/the-new-new-old-gay-broadway-breezy-bright-and-gay/

[jo]

Regretably, I have never seen Barbara perform in person. But her singing is wonderfully appealing.

I would like to share two instances when I had an encounter with her. At the stage door of THE BOY FROM OZ ( she was a great fan of the show and Hugh Jackman, confessing to seeing the show over 15 times or so), we happened to cross paths and I couldn't help but tell her how much I enjoyed her duet with Michael Ball of PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE, sung for the Queen of England during a Royal Variety performance. She gave me a broad smile and said "Thanks" to acknowledge my compliment.

A few weeks later, we happened to be sitting two rows apart for the closing show of TBFO. During intermission, she talked to those of us within hearing distance and who sat closer to the stage than she did and said she would like to share with us some confetti and other stuff which we could all throw to the cast at curtain call. Out came her big Tiffany bag and she handed stuff to us for the final bow of the show!

I did not think I would ever see her again...but two years later, I went to Sydney to see the arena version of The Boy from Oz. During the Bicoastal moment, Hugh Jackman told us that there was someone in the audience whom he loves dearly and had there been no legal restraints ( copyright laws or something) he would have asked her to sing! It was Barbara - and that night would have been complete if she and Hugh had sang a duet together ( Maybe even PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE ?), with complete approval from his wife, who was Barbara's host for the evening!

[BwayBaby2000]

A friends dad took me to see Barbara Cook perform at the Carlyle last year and she was AMAZING-- I mean, just BEAUTIFUL. She is still such an amazing performer and though her range has dropped somewhat, her beautiful tone is unforgettable--and all this at 80! I love Barbara Cook.

[PalJoey]

Bump for Barbare.

[Jordan Catalano]

Awwwww.  <3

[NYadgal]

This is a good thread.  So nice to read it again. 

[mc1227]

Thanks for bumping this, PalJoey!  She was truly magnificent and one of a kind.  Thanks for the wonderful music you made, Barbara!  R.I.P

[GavestonPS]

Quite simply, Miss Cook was the greatest legit soprano in Broadway musical history. (And, along with Julie Andrews, one of only two I would even listen to as a kid.)

She deserved more long-running hits, but had she had them, we might have been deprived of many of the hundreds of brilliant recordings she left to us.

(Thanks to pal joey for the examples above. And I agree with the poster who wrote that Cook's Disney album is a classic (and she recorded it before Ashman and Mencken made Disney scores great again)!

[GeorgeandDot]

What a radiant and glorious performer and person.  I was so shocked by the news this morning.  She truly had the voice of an angel.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

In Buddy's Eyes

There are only four performers I've ever gotten the nuance and pain in this gorgeous song - one of my favorites ever written - and Miss Cook was one of them.

I saw her in person, albeit briefly. Kelli O'Hara announced a special guest in her Carnegie Hall concert, and out came Barbara, in her wheelchair but in good spirits. I remember the collective gasp and applause - and of course I instantly rose out of my seat to give this legend her due.

I've listened to Candide so many times over the years - how she effortlessly enunciated each "H" in "ha"! Listen to how she can take a simple pop song, such as "A House Is Not a Home", and turn it into almost a Puccini aria! And when she gets brilliant material, like the song above or Arlen's "I Had Myself a True Love", she makes something of such intense beauty it's hard to believe.

She, along with perhaps only Garland and Streisand, were (in Streisand's case, are) masters of interpretation. Every song is given nuanced meaning - some revelatory. We are at a great loss today.

It's all hitting me right now. I just can't believe she's gone...

[NewYorkTheater]

Anybody else read her memoir, which came out last year?

Barbara Cook Memoir “Then and Now”: From Golden Age Ingenue to Alcoholic to “Living Landmark”

[BakerWilliams]

I'm with GavestonPS. Cook was an astonishing singer—she had the kind of vocal technique you just can't find nowadays. The way that she sings every "h" sound in the ha's in Glitter and Be Gay is actually astonishing. I never had the pleasure of seeing her live, but as a vocalist, she was one of the greats.