There’s a crucial missing piece to Barbra and Liza Live! that stops the true stardust that these two Hollywood legends deserve.

There are very few opportunities in life to watch Liza Minnelli perform cover of Beyonce’s Single Ladies, or Barbra Streisand do an impression of Gillian Anderson doing an impression of Margaret Thatcher. 

Intrigued? It’s Barbra & Liza Live! a night of show tunes and glittery tops. Steven Brinberg brings sophistication and a fierce bob to his renowned Barbra impression, and Rick Skye’s vocals and style brought Liza Minnelli straight into the Charring Cross Theatre. 

The impressions are flawless, and the performances engaging overall; it’s a fun show! But that isn’t the problem, the whole vibe is, especially when the audience doesn’t meet the energy.  It was back-to-back show tunes, with the occasional duet from the two performers. In-between, both performers’ ad-libs bring effortless comedy and many laughs, particularly Barbra with her relentless name dropping and references to her 48-hour-long audiobook autobiography (it really is 48 hours long, I checked. The physical book is almost 1000 pages long). 

The target audience for Barbra & Liza Live! is pretty much anyone obsessed with show tunes, or Barbra Streisand’s extensive playbook. The show definetly goes down smoother with a slightly older crowd, not to be rude about the age of the two Hollywood stars. It should be said that the audience was on the older side, just the low energy kind. Packed to the rafters with enthusiastic patrons, the whole vibe of the performance could’ve been different. But with an unresponsive audience, and the odd awkward technical issue the whole night felt stilted when it didn’t need to be.

Many songs just didn’t bring the energy to an already stiff room. A pitch perfect rendition of a Streisand classic Don’t Rain on my parade was one of the few belters that needed more punch. Even in the more serene and moving ballads – although wonderfully sung – went on for slightly too long, and meant the audience disengaged further. Even an appearance of Peggy Lee singing ‘Fever’, although drawing many laughs and a high energy performance, wasn’t enough. And really, who is Peggy Lee to an under 30?

But it would be lying to say this wasn’t a uniquely interesting 90 minutes. As suggested, Liza brought out some absolute belters when off script from traditional show tunes – a mash-up including Mary Poppins’ – ‘Feed the birds – tuppence PIZZAZZ’. These moments are genuinely hilarious in their absurdity, but with such a reserved crowd, it failed to translate past the edge of the stage.  

Brinberg’s Barbra is renowned for a reason, the impression verges on unnerving with its similarities. A moving performance of ‘I’m still here’ turns into Brinberg giving a string of amazing impressions, from Julie Andrews, and of course, Margaret Thatcher as played by Gillian Anderson.

So not for lack of energy or trying from the performers, but there’s a crucial missing piece to Barbra & Liza Live! that stops it bringing the true stardust that these two Hollywood legends deserve.