International Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada
July 2—30, 1969
Barbra returned to Las Vegas to open Kirk Kerkorian's new International Hotel. Her manager, Marty Erlichman, told Billboard magazine: “She was nervous about going back to the stage. Then we found out the hotel wasn't ready. There were no chairs, tables or booths in the theater. She was rehearsing in an empty room. I took her around to some of the shows so she could get a feel of things.”
Peter Matz conducted the 37-piece orchestra, and the opening night audience included such celebrities as Natalie Wood, Andy Williams, Cary Grant, and Tony Bennett.
Streisand eschewed an opening act. The audience, therefore, ate dinner at 8:30 pm and Barbra appeared onstage to perform at 10:30 pm.
Charles Champlin reviewed her opening night (July 2nd) and closing night (July 30th) shows. It is interesting to note how much Streisand's show changed in one month's time. She definitely took the initiative to hone her act.
Here is Champlin's review of opening night:
... Even allowing for the opening night tension, Miss Streisand's appearance was a curious, cold and intensely disappointing 80 minutes worth. As her admirers know, she has a superb voice, pure and powerful. She is also an actress and comedienne of great gifts and she has a spiky directness of manner.
The trouble was that manners had become mannerisms. Her performance had been finely calculated but that magic rapport which Sinatra, Tony Bennett—and Miss Lee—can establish with their audience never really got going for Barbra. It was a performance which originated in a cool intellect rather than a warm heart; it was a hand-out, not a sharing.
There were specific problems: The show was too long; the selections were largely an extended and finally counter-productive plug for her three movies and a new album. The chat between songs was self-conscious and unconvincing.
The 36-piece orchestra seemed to be miked so that the brass output was muffled, leaving a rather shrill and fussy accompaniment for her. As a song stylist, in fact, Miss Streisand tends alarmingly toward the over-elaborate and the dynamic extremes, even though her most successful songs have probably been her simplest.
But the specifics mattered less by a good deal than the fact that Miss Streisand seemed a dazzlingly efficient and invaluable but chillingly impersonal machine. She is a superior talent who still, it turns out, has some lessons to learn.
Streisand responded to the criticism by explaining,“I was aloof on opening night because I was in a state of shock. You could feel the hostility of that opening night audience, all the gamblers who were there because they're important to the hotel, all the actors who resent the fact that you're doing things they think they should be doing. It's total fear time up there.”
(Below: An International Hotel postcard with Streisand's image.)
Barbra also said, “Some performers get a thrill out of winning over a cold audience—I talked to Elvis about it last night; he does—I don't. It turns me off.”
Barbra worked on her International Hotel act and turned her failure around quickly. Instead of opening the show with “I've Got Plenty of Nothing” (meant to be an ironic joke about her supposed $1 million payday for performing at the hotel), Streisand instead sang the uptempo “Don't Rain on My Parade”.
By closing night, her set list looked like this:
- Don't Rain on My Parade
- People
- My Honey's Lovin Arms
- My Funny Valentine
- Ask Yourself Why
- My Buddy/How About Me
- What About Today?
- My Man
- Jingle Bells?
- Punky's Dilemma
- My Melancholy Baby
- Second Hand Rose
- Happy Days Are Here Again
Additionally (and alternately), Barbra performed two medleys during her International Hotel shows, each with a different closing song.
Dolly Medley
- Hello, Dolly!
- Before The Parade Passes By
- So Long Dearie
- Hello, Dolly! / Before The Parade Passes By
- When You Gotta Go / In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
Clear Day Medley
- Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here
- He Isn't You
- What Did I Have That I Don't Have
- On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)
- Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair?
(Above) The International Hotel dinner menu which featured Entrees like the Baked Lobster Tail ($15.00) and Roast Prime Rib of Beef, au Jus ($15.00).
Champlin's closing night review reflected the changes he saw:
It was Barbra Streisand's closing night at the International Hotel and a gratuity beyond the dreams of avarice could probably not have squeezed another customer into the huge room.
I had thought and said that the engagement began badly, with Miss Streisand conveying a cool aloofness which was no help to the new-room problems (bad sound) or to a program I found too talky and underweighted with familiar material and change of pace.
But word from the desert persisted that much had changed and the engagement had become the time of triumph it should always have been. I came over to hear, and the reports were true enough.
The room's acoustics had been solved and Peter Matz's arrangements for the 36-piece orchestra came through with a crisp and balanced clarity. The talk between numbers had been sharply trimmed and what Miss Streisand had to say was brief and wryly funny. And even though she was fighting a bad sore throat which gave her trouble on a couple of high notes and in some soft passages, her concert, 17 songs long, was a scintillating display of her gifts.
She led off with an up-tempo romp through "Rain on My Parade," modulating into "People." Her quiet crooning of the verse of "Funny Valentine," accompanied only by the piano, was a lovely change of pace. She also sang "Second Hand Rose," her famous slow-time version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" and such gentle works as "Melancholy Baby" and "My Buddy."
More than that, she seemed to be having a ball, relaxed, amiable and in charge.
At the end of July, Ed Sullivan brought his cameras to Las Vegas to tape a special segment for his variety show in which he introduced Barbra and she sang. Sullivan interrupted a European trip in order to fly to Las Vegas and introduce the segment.
Under the supervision of Sullivan's executive producer Bob Precht, Barbra's entire Vegas show was taped for a possible one-hour television special. Reportedly, it was the final July 30th show which was videotaped.
Sullivan taped his part in front of the live audience: he introduced Barbra; she sang a medley of songs from Hello, Dolly!; then Sullivan came back on stage and congratulated Streisand. It has been written that Streisand then restaged the show late into the night so that the television cameras could capture her performance—this time without a live audience (possibly so the editors would have more choices of camera angles and an alternate live performance by Streisand).
Precht told the press that he turned over the tapes to Barbra's manager, Marty Erlichman, who would seek a television deal for the footage.
Ed Sullivan's part (the Dolly medley) was shown in September 1969 on the opening show of his 23rd season. A clip of Barbra singing “On A Clear Day” was shown on 1970's Entertainer of the Year Awards, and the audio of Barbra's closing number (“When You Gotta Go / Wee Small Hours of the Morning”) was included on Streisand's box set, Just For the Record.
The potential Streisand television special (Barbra Streisand Live at the International Hotel?) was shelved and never released.
(Below: two shots of Streisand, wearing a jeweled gown with pillbox hat)
End.
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