{"id":196663,"date":"2026-04-24T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=196663"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:09:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:09:59","slug":"barbra-streisand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=196663","title":{"rendered":"“I only began to sing because I couldn\u2019t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nYou can’t understand Barbra Streisand if you don’t know the famous story of her audition for I Can Get It For You Wholesale<\/i>, which ended up being her big break. She made a splash in her Broadway debut, which of course was just a prelude to the superstardom which came with Funny Girl<\/i>. You can’t understand Barbra Streisand if you don’t understand the revolution that she was, a revolution born out of beauty-standards – those beauty standards rooted in anti-Semitism, and shutting out “the other”. The Anglo-Saxon dominance not an accident. You have to understand all of these things. You can thrill to her voice, but you must get the context. The rise of Barbra Streisand was a revolution.<\/p>\n

But how did this revolution happen? On a deep-down level, confounding if you examine it too closely, it happened because she believed in herself more than other people – including her mother, including the world – believed in her. She believed in herself so much that she walked into that audition with an entire FAKE backstory set up, a make-believe which set her free. Did she need such trickery? Wasn’t her voice – a once-in-a-generation voice – enough? Clearly not. She had to believe in herself so much that she literally forced others – who only saw her “ethnic” features and thought them ugly – to believe. <\/p>\n

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\nMichael Shurtleff gave us an eyewitness account in his essential book Audition<\/i>. He sat in the theatre, watching an unknown teenage girl audition for the Broadway show, I Can Get It for You Wholesale<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Even when you know the story, when you accept that yes, Barbra Streisand did all this, the question remains: Why? How? How did she get the NOIVE? There was no gum??<\/i> Barbra!!<\/p>\n

I had Barbra Streisand audition a couple of times for shows and the reaction was:’She sings great, but what can we do with a girl who looks like that?’ Along came I Can Get It For You Wholesale<\/i>. I thought the role of Miss Marmelstein might just fit Miss Streisand.<\/p>\n

I scheduled her last on the day of auditions. She arrived late, rushed onstage in her raccoon coat, explaining she was late because she’d seen the most marvelous shoes in a thrift shop window and just had to go in to get them. Only one of each pair fit, but she loved them anyhow and didn’t we think they were wonderful? She was wearing two unmatched shoes. She started to sing and then stopped after two notes, chewing gum all through this rapid-fire monologue, saying she must have a stool, could anyone find a stool for her, please? By this time the auditors were muttering to me, ‘Where did you find this nut?’ She sang the first two notes of her song, then stopped again. This time to take the gum from her mouth and squash it on the underside of the stool. THEN she sang. She mesmerized ’em. They asked her to sing two more. After that, they converged on the stage to explore their new discovery up close.<\/p>\n

David Merrick, who was the producer, took me to the back of the house alone.<\/p>\n

‘I thought I told you,’ he said,’that I don’t want ugly girls in my shows!”<\/p>\n

‘I know, David, but she’s so talented.’<\/p>\n

‘Talented, shmalented. I don’t want ugly girls in my shows.’<\/p>\n

‘But –‘<\/p>\n

‘There’s no buts! Look at them, swarming all over her. They love her! What am I going to do now? I’ll never get rid of her!’<\/p>\n

Then – when Miss Streisand and all the others had gone, Mr. Laurents called me back. He was alone, sitting onstage on the stool Miss Streisand had commandeered.<\/p>\n

‘Look at this.’ Arthur Laurents said to me. ‘Run your hand over the bottom of this stool.’<\/p>\n

I did. There was no gum. She hadn’t recovered her gum. Arthur had been watching to see if she would. There had never been any gum.<\/p>\n

‘My God,’ said Arthur. ‘What have we got on our hands here?’<\/p>\n

It was the first inkling of what an incredible actress this young singer was: an adventuress who at 18 had her shit together so strong, she took the risk of putting on an act about a raccoon coat, shoes that didn’t match, a stool, and a piece of imaginary gum.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t long after that, Mr. Merrick was paying her $5,000 a week to do Funny Girl<\/i> and she was the biggest star on Broadway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Camille Paglia, in her essay on Streisand (“Brooklyn Nefertiti: Barbra Streisand”), wrote:<\/p>\n

There has always been a conflict in Barbra Streisand, as in Oscar Wilde, between her populist politics and her aristocratic and tyrannical persona. In early pictures, with her hair swept back, she looks so grand, like a Russian duchess. This is what gay guys liked about her – the arrogant, monarchical diva hood, which is definitely not democratic. Streisand has always been a kind of drag queen herself. That’s true of Sandra Bernhard too, and it’s true of me and of a lot of women who didn’t feel particularly feminine when they were growing up. For women like that, by the time you figure out what femininity is, you’ve become a female impersonator.<\/p>\n

I’ve written in Sexual Personae<\/i> that all the great stars imitated by gay men – Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Diana Ross, Joan Collins, and Barbra Streisand – are androgynous. That’s why their romantic relationships are so bad, because they are autocratic and autonomous. As artists, they need no one else. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nStreisand performing “He Touched Me” in her massive Central Park concert in 1967, for me, is peak Barbra, although those early years have so many peaks. This is one of those performances where, no matter how many time I’ve watched it, and it has to be in the 100s now, my whole body – yes, my whole body – shivers with goosebumps as she reaches that final section. I am typing this now and have goosebumps just typing it. It is a purely physical phenomenon – rare in my experience. Elvis’ “If I Can Dream” does that. Whitney Houston’s Star-Spangled Banner. Judy Garland’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Ol’ Man River” do that. James Brown on the TAMI Show. Involuntary full-body response. Each time. Always. I’m never “over it”. <\/p>\n

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