Newsday, 1966

FANS SAY BARBRA NEVER IN BETTER SHAPE
By Judy Heyman and Al Cohn

Barbra Streisand stood on the stage of the Newport Music Festival Stadium at the end of her concert Saturday night, finished with a full evening of singing and clowning. She is about midway through her pregnancy now and was clearly exhausted, but the sellout crowd of 16,000 applauded as though it would never tire. "Thank you," she was finally able to say, grinning, "thank you for coming to see such a shlep."

Some schlep. The Brooklyn-born singer, recently returned from the London run of "Funny Girl," might have been wondering if her popularity had waned during her absence. The reaction to the concert here had to be a resounding answer. Whatever she did - and she did plenty - drew enthusiastic cheering, much of it coming out of standing ovations.

Miss Streisand came on stage in a flowing, floor-length brown and red chiffon dress and led off in a straight style, with serious offerings of "Where Am I Going?" and "No Strings." But it wasn't long before she was back to her familiar kooky self, kibitzing with a little-girl rendition of "I Hate Music" and poking fun at the folk-song rage.

In one jab at the folk idiom, she started telling a ludicrous story about a girl from Cambodia who was going to kill herself when she lost her lover to her sister, but decided against singing the song that she said would follow. "You're not laughing," she said, "so I'm not singing." Later she sang a spoof of a folk song, stopping every few words to explain the strange vernacular.

For the second half of the concert, Miss Streisand appeared in a black fitted sequin gown. The highlight of this portion of the concert was a well received medley of her best known songs, including "People," "He Touched Me" and "Second Hand Rose." In addition to the ballads and novelty numbers, she sang several blues songs, like "Cry Me a River."

After the concert, Miss Streisand held a brief press conference, which amounted to more clowning around. When will she go back to work after her baby is born? "Never," she giggled before saying it would be about two months afterward. Were the flowing gowns worn with the purpose of playing down her "condition"? "I always wear dresses of this style," she said wryly, "only now they're right for the occasion."