Does anyone know Barbara Cook well enough to ask who her surprise guests will be on October 18 at Carnegie Hall?

[fredric47]

I was hoping that when tickets went on sale on August 27th for Barbara Cook's 85th Birthday Concert at Carnegie Hall that her guest performers would also be announced. I love Barbara Cook and have been an admirer of her special singing and acting abilities for 55 years; but the last time I saw her in concert at Carnegie Hall was in 1980 at the time that her live recording, "It's Better With A Band," was made. That show was just Barbara Cook and her musicians. So this time (and the concert happens to coincide with the day of my 60th birthday), I was hoping for an all star cast to appear with Barbara. I can imagine that Elaine Stritch and Michael Feinstein will be among the guest performers. Does anyone know for certain who else might be performing? Please let me know for certain since I haven't purchased my ticket yet, hoping to hear who else would be on the bill.

[Jordan Catalano]

Is it supposed to be a surprise?

[bwayphreak234]

She told me not tell anyone... sorry.

[GavestonPS]

fredric, I saw her at the Ahmanson in L.A. less than 10 years ago. No special guests, but worth every penny.

If I were in New York, I wouldn't worry about the guests.

[fredric47]

According to the Carnegie Hall website, there will be surprise guests to be announced at Barbara Cook's 85th Birthday concert which coincides with my 60th Birthday on October 18. Well, Barbara, if you are reading this, I think you should not keep your guest list a surprise. It isn't easy for me to get up to NYC on a midweek night. So if I am coming to see you, I would love to know who else I can expect to see performing on that evening. I know the real reason why she isn't announcing the guest list is that by not revealing who will be performing, none of the audience will be disappointed if there are no-shows among the performers who are previously announced. But I can't deal with surprises. So I may just not attend if the guest list isn't revealed before the tickets for the concert get sold out.

[NYadgal]

Just seeing Barbara Cook in Carnegie Hall is worth the price of the ticket.

[PalJoey]

I don't think the guests will be worth all the trouble you'd have to go through to get up to NYC on a midweek night for your 60th and her 85th birthdays, which just happen to coincide, and that would be cool for anybody else in the world but not for you since you hate surprises and you're such an annoying whiner, so I think you should just forget about it and spend your 60th birthday some other way to prevent yourself from being disappointed, because, after all, it's just another Barbara Cook concert and if you don't see this one you can always see her 90th birthday concert which will coincide with your 65th and maybe she'll announce those surprise guests in advance and you'll have grown a little more mature and learned to stop whining.

Oh and have a happy birthday not seeing Barbara Cook and guests.

[Wynbish]

Barbara, if you're reading this, I Looooove You!

[NYadgal]

I'd give anything not to be out of town for business, so I could attend this.

(Bravo, PalJoey!)

[mamaleh]

Five or six years ago I went to a fabulous Barbara Cook concert at Carnegie Hall that was billed as also featuring a special guest. That guest turned out to be Kelli O'Hara. Will history repeat itself? Who knows?

[Wynbish]

Barbara could be singing to an Invisible Robert Preston in a chair, and the OP should still go.

[JerseyGirl2]

It's Barbara Cook. Who CARES who the guest stars are? Barbara. Cook.

I called her and she said it was no one special, but that you should purchase tickets and give them to someone who doesn't care who it is.

[madbrian]

I heard Stritch is going to sing Glitter And Be Gay.

[followspot]

fredric47, if you're reading this, please tell us if you're joking — because I don't like jokes, and I especially don't like not knowing if someone is joking. I can't quite believe that such infantile posts are seriously coming from a 60-year-old, but I don't know for sure, and I don't like not knowing, especially on a weekday.

Does anyone know fredric47 well enough to know if he's joking?

[Wynbish]

Jokes are not listed as surprise guests for this thread

[D2]

It's me. I'm the surprise guest.

They haven't announced it in advance because, well, the truth is no one knows who the hell I am so it wouldn't help ticket sales, and might possibly hinder them.

[fredric47]

I was totally serious when I asked the question. Most of the responders didn't get my point. I don't live in NYC; and I am on a limited income. So when I do come up from Philadelphia to see shows or concerts, it is only for something that I really must attend. Barbara Cook is appearing in Kennett Square, PA and Princeton, NJ in the weeks following her October 18th Carnegie Hall concert. Both of these venues are closer for me to get to. For all I know, she is doing the same program as at Carnegie Hall; but if I knew for certain that she was performing with Elaine Stritch, Angela Lansbury, Michael Feinstein, Patti LuPone, Malcolm Gets, Sheldon Harnick,etc. on October 18, I would make a point of attending her New York concert which coincides with my 60th birthday. Now that I have further explained my quandary, I hope all of you namecallers will be more sympathetic to my dilemma.

[followspot]

Sorry if we misunderstood. We thought your point was that Barbara Cook should pre-announce the "special surprise guests" for her own birthday concert because by not doing so she's seriously inconveniencing you and you "can't deal with surprises."

Oh wait — that was your point.

[PalJoey]

Now that I have further explained my quandary, I hope all of you namecallers will be more sympathetic to my dilemma.

No. You're still a silly whiner with a laughably over-inflated sense of entitlement.

But happy birthday anyway.

[nealb1]

What dilemma are you referring to? Either buy a ticket, or not. If there's a special guest star, what difference will it make?

[PalJoey]

He says he "can't deal with surprises" and he "may just not attend if the guest list isn't revealed."

Which apparently would serve Miss Barbara Cook right!

[GavestonPS]

neal, the OP explained that he lives near Philly and is debating whether to see Cook in Princeton or elsewhere in Jersey, or to spend the extra money to come into New York. As such, asking about the guests isn't an idle question and isn't a suggestion that Cook alone isn't worth the trouble.

I don't think the OP is going to get an answer, but I don't see the problem with the question.

[jv92]

WHO CARES? It's Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall! I'm going hell or high water!

[GavestonPS]

This will be hard for midtown aficionados to imagine, but I've heard Miss Cook sing at the Music Center in L.A. and even at Yankee Stadium!

She was still magnificent!

[PalJoey]

I would go hear Barbara Cook sing anywhere--including a barn theater in Nyack.

Which is where I saw her for the first time, in 1973, in a show called "The Gershwin Years." Barbara was very large, shockingly large, and the show also starred Julie Wilson and Helen Gallagher and Harold Lang. (It was the last show he ever did.)