ME, MYSELF & BARBRA: The Music That Made Barbara, Barbra Comes to The Willow After National Tour

Jenna Pastuszek and Joshua Zecher-Ross will bring ME, MYSELF & BARBRA: The Music that Made Barbara Barbra, to The Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton for four shows January 12th-14th, 2024.

Ever wonder what might happen if you stop waiting for permission and start believing in yourself? Just ask Barbra Streisand. At 21, Babs spent her evenings singing in NYC's hottest cabaret clubs dressed up in funky thrift store finds. At 21, acclaimed performer Jenna Pastuszek spent hers serving mini kosher hot dogs at bar mitzvahs sporting a patterned bow tie. Until she met Barbra, and everything changed. Learn how Barbra's self-confidence, power, and unique panache inspired a young performer to get out of her own way and embrace her kooky self, weird last name and all.

Join creator/star Jenna Pastuszek and music director, Broadway's Joshua Zecher-Ross, in this tribute to a trailblazing young Barbra. With "lavishly clever arrangements", and "witty, endearing personal stories", the evening features the music sung between 1959-1965 that turned her into the icon we know and love today.

After a wildly successful solo show debut tour of GET HAPPY!: An Evening Celebrating the World's Greatest Entertainer, Judy Garland, in 2020 & 2021, including a special filmed version at Century Villages, Pastuszek and Zecher-Ross teamed up again in 2022 to create another tribute, this time to Barbra Streisand, now part of a concert series they're calling "The Original American Idols". The upcoming show at The Willow will be the duo's first public performance in the South Florida region.

As an undergraduate history major, putting together both ME, MYSELF & BARBRA and GET HAPPY! have felt like full-circle moments for Pastuszek. "Whenever I sit down to research a performer I admire, I learn so much about myself too. I may be singing songs and telling stories of women moving through the world sixty years ago, but so much of what they were facing then is, unfortunately, still present today. What a gift to explore my own history with such a beautiful score behind me." Barbra's long anticipated memoir was released in November. This will be Pastuszek's first time performing the show since reading the book. "For Barbra fans and people brand new to Barbra, this show will introduce you to facts (and songs!) about the beloved singer that you may not have previously known."

Speaking of history, Pastuszek first performed in the South Florida area in 2016, as the title role in Evita at The Broward Stage Door Theatre, a performance for which she was nominated for a prestigious Carbonell Award for Best Actress. "I fell in love with the South Florida theatre community during that show. It's an incredibly talented and special group of people, and the production quality of South Florida theater is incredible. I knew as soon as I boarded the plane back to NYC that I had to get back ASAP (and not just for the beautiful beaches. :-))."

After a successful run at Paper Mill Playhouse's Brookside Cabaret, Mark S. Hoebee, Artistic Director, said, "Jenna is an incredible singer with a facile voice perfectly suited to Me, Myself and Barbra." He thought that "the combination of some of Barbra Streisand's greatest hits with some hidden gems from her early years was so satisfying" and was "impressed with the research that Jenna brought forth to weave a lovely and very funny narrative through the songs." Chris Alleman, Artistic Director of Theatre SilCo, said the show featured "a cleverly curated playlist with definite crowd pleasers but some lesser known songs with really lovely arrangements." He said Jenna "enraptured the audience with her sincerity while delivering laughter, fun facts, and intricately woven personal anecdotes that really grounded her performance." Matt Silva, Artistic Director of Delaware Theatre Company, called Jenna "a ray of sunshine" with "a powerhouse voice".

Additional recent performances of ME, MYSELF & BARBRA include NYC's The Green Room 42, 54 Below at Vitello's, and the Zlock Performing Arts Center. Upcoming performances include the Overture Center for the Arts in Wisconsin and Little Theatre of Manchester in Connecticut.

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