Author: Brian Butler

What started as a bit of fun for an aspiring young male cabaret singer has turned over 30 years into an internationally acclaimed act that re-creates the essence of megastar Barbra Streisand.

Steven Brinberg was no child prodigy – though his father wanted him to be. “My dad was a kind of Pappa Rose.” (A Gypsy analogy if you didn’t know).

On the eve of his latest short tour of the UK, taking in Brighton’s Ironworks Studios on Sunday, October 22, I sat down with him to ask where it all came from.

The answer is summer camp for young actors which led amongst other courses to a spell at the prestigious New School, whose alumni include Elaine Stritch and Marlon Brando. But he’s quick to point out: “In show business nobody cares about what school you went to; they only care what work you’ve done.”

He had already been fascinated by all things Streisand – recording himself in her voice on tape, which his father believed to be the real Barbra. “At the New School I sang as myself, but used to add little sections to my act singing as Julie Andrews and Cleo Laine.”

After a couple of years of acting and singing, Steven accepted a dare from a friend and did a whole show of Streisand songs. He was booked for four consecutive Saturday nights at New York’s great cabaret venue Don’t Tell Mama, but played for a further three years weekly – for many years a record.

His audiences included the late great Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, with whom he struck up an exchange of letters, and a later association.

His first London show was at the small Jermyn Street Theatre. His show is based on his own intuition, rather than someone else’s direction, and as I learned it’s rooted in reality, with life sometimes imitating art. Now the show Simply Barbra, which he updates annually, takes him criss-crossing the USA and around the world. “I’v’ been to Australia five times; Barbra’s only been once,” he says with a wry smile.

“I talk to the audience as if I was her – I’m an interpreter not an impersonator. I say things she would never say – I make stuff up, but I’m inside her. It’s spooky that I just know what she’d say and how she’d say it.”

Ms Streisand’s spies and her creative team have been in his audiences – presumably reporting back – more about that later.

“After Stephen Sondheim had seen my show, he wrote to me how he loved it,” and so when Sondheim’s 70th birthday concert was staged at the Library of Congress in Washington, Stephen wanted Steven to play Barbra in it. There was strong opposition from the powers that be, but Sondheim insisted on his apperance. “It was called Songs I Wished I’d Written, and I sang When In Rome.” He was introduced by Broadway star Nathan Lane, who was going to announce him as Steven, but Sondheim insisted the pretence should be maintained that the audience were indeed seeing Barbra.

His next break was after he sent his CD to composer/musical director Marvin Hamlisch (creator of A Chorus Line) and Barbra’s long-standing MD.

“Marvin wanted me to be in her show but it never happened for various reasons.” But it started a working relationship that included concerts with another Broadway legend Barbara Cook. “I did 10 years of shows with Marvin.”

Going back over his career, I wondered who’d influenced him. “Jim Bailey was my idol. (Note to readers; I first saw Jim in the 1990s. Act 1 was Judy and Act 2 Liza – he was a phenomenon.) Steven told me: “When I first saw him, I never imagined I could do that sort of thing.”

Has Barbra seen his show? “For a long time I wondered what she knew – if it was disrespectful, she’d have shut it down.”

Indeed he’s had some stage directions that came through a third party, but he believes were from the lady herself. “My dream is that she’d turn up one night. I’d either freeze or give the performance of my life – the latter I hope. I’ve sung some of her songs that she hadn’t recorded, and then later she did and I sound just like her.”

I wondered if he had a ‘coming out’ story. “I guess I always knew – my parents found out and it was all ok.” Is there a song he’s not yet done that he’d like to? “Free Again – Barbra sang it in French; I could do that, maybe in France.”

There’s no doubt he could.

Simply Barbara tickets for Brighton HERE. 

Bighton footnote – do you know the Barbra connection? Part of her 1970 fantasy musical film On A Clear Day You Can See Forever was filmed in Brighton, especially around the Pavilion