Latest news with #BarbraStreisand
New York Times
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Gary Smith, Master Producer of TV Entertainment, Dies at 90
Gary Smith, an Emmy Award-winning television producer who specialized in creating sophisticated programming for stars like Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley and Mikhail Baryshnikov, died on July 18 in Los Angeles. He was 90. The death, in a hospital, was confirmed by a family spokesman. Mr. Smith's partner for nearly 40 years in the production of TV specials, awards shows and extravaganzas was Dwight Hemion. Their many collaborations, which began in the 1960s, earned them numerous Primetime Emmy Awards. Mr. Smith also won several more on his own. 'They helped define the best of American variety television entertainment, from intimate musical specials to celebrations of history like 'Liberty Weekend'' (commemorating the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in 1986), said Ron Simon, the head curator of the Paley Center for Media. Mr. Smith said in an interview with the Television Academy in 2001 that conversations with stars were critical to determining the theme of a special. He recalled that Mr. Baryshnikov told him that 'A Chorus Line,' which he saw sometime after his defection from the Soviet Union in 1974, 'really knocked me out.' That was the hook that Mr. Smith said he needed to develop the 1980 special 'Baryshnikov on Broadway.' In that show, Liza Minnelli guides Mr. Baryshnikov on a dreamlike tour of Broadway musicals, and he leaps assuredly into each one, dancing in one familiar production number after another from 'Oklahoma!,' 'Fiddler on the Roof,' 'A Chorus Line' and other musicals. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 'Virgin' by Lorde ★★★ "The Lorde of yore is back and better than ever," said Chris Kelly in The Washington Post. On her fourth album, the New Zealand–born former teen wunderkind who "changed the game for alternative pop" has moved past the "easy-listening psychedelia" of 2021's Solar Power and delivered an 11-song set that "percolates with subtle club beats" and "warm-blanket" synths, but leaves "plenty of white space" for her signature phrasings. It "plays like the counterpoint to Charli XCX's Brat": a study in the messiness of young adulthood that's less a party soundtrack than a "headphone masterpiece." To my ears, Virgin is the 28-year-old's "most piecemeal work to date," said Jon Caramanica in The New York Times. It's the sound of one of our most thoughtful pop stars "futzing around with aftermarket Charli XCX-isms," finding something fresh only on two tracks. But even the weaker songs serve the album's themes, and "the fractured nature of the production mirrors the content," said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. "These songs are about looking back with regret and confronting ugly truths while embracing flaws." 'The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two' by Barbra Streisand ★★★ Think of the latest duets album from Barbra Streisand as "a cozy, comforting hug," said Melissa Ruggieri in USA Today. Like 2014's Partners, it assembles a panel of A-listers, this time including Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande for a trio performance that, surprisingly, is "steeped in restraint." But while it's a shame that this "holy trinity of glorious sound" was wasted on a generic ballad, "highlights are many." Even the first-ever pairing of Streisand with Bob Dylan "doesn't disappoint," largely because for their cover of 1934's "The Very Thought of You," Streisand "coaxed Dylan to actually sing." Some stars fare less well, said Helen Brown in The Telegraph (U.K.). "Neither Sting's 'Fragile' nor James Taylor's 'The Secret o' Life' gain much from being turned into two-handers." But Paul McCartney brings "easygoing affection" to a new spin on his 2011 tune "My Valentine," and Streisand adds maternal warmth to her duet with youthful crooner Laufey on "Letter to My 13 Year Old Self." In any case, "resistance is useless" against the pillowy softness of Streisand's voice. The album induces yawns, but "in the nicest possible way." 'Tropicoqueta' by Karol G ★★★★ Karol G's latest hit album is "a bright compendium of 20 songs, all pulling from different parts of Latin-pop history," said Julyssa Lopez in Rolling Stone. The Colombian star's career went "stratospheric" with 2023's chart-topping Mañana Será Bonito, and this follow-up is the 34-year-old's tribute to the music that shaped her: "baroque '80s ballads, soaring vallenatos, merengue from dance parties in family living rooms in Medellín." Keeping things "carefree and breezy," she "loads up the album with Easter eggs," including a sing-along with 1990s star Thalía and a duet with 65-year-old Marco Antonio Solís on "Coleccionando Heridas," a gorgeous ballad. "Put some respect on Karol G's name," said Tatiana Lee Rodriguez in Pitchfork. After a decade of award-winning urbano recordings, she's playing stadium tours and "even has her own Bratz doll." With Tropicoqueta, she playfully reinterprets "tropical" music, a popular catchall style that emerged in the early 1960s. Weaving a 1984 George Michael melody into "Cuando Me Muera Te Olvido" keeps faith with the tradition. She's also "right at home" on the accordion-laced "No Puedo Vivir Sin Él." Solve the daily Crossword
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
When love isn't enough: Why I left my ‘perfect' relationship
I walked out of my 'perfect' relationship. While it lasted — all of eight years — it looked like a match made in heaven. He was patient, kind, and loyal. Our relationship was supported and celebrated by our families and friends. But with time, I became aware of the vast gap in our perception of the world, which only grew larger by the day. There was not much drama or conflict, but the truth was undeniable and stark. Break-ups are usually messy, often a result of cheating or dishonesty. There's shouting, tears, blocked numbers, and divided friend groups. At least that's what social media, movies, and even our own fears would have us believe. It's almost as if a relationship can only end for explicit, solid and explosive reasons. But separations need not necessarily be about betrayal, disappointment, and anguish. They can happen when two people, who still love each other, stop moving in the same direction. For me, there was no single, seismic moment that marked the end. It was rather a slow unravelling, and here's how it possibly began. For quite some time, I wanted to have deeper conversations with him that challenged our social conditioning and pushed our boundaries of comfort. I wanted to interrogate the world and my place in it. He chose the comfort of certainty and was content with how things were, and I was not. One day, I asked myself: if this continues, what will I become? At first, it was just a niggling restlessness. Eventually, I understood that I was growing. Not away from him, but into myself. We often confuse love with compatibility, but are they the same? You can love someone deeply and still find yourself fundamentally out of sync. Love is not a guarantee of forever. It is a powerful bond, but it doesn't erase the need for shared growth, intellectual connection, or mutual curiosity about the world. I found myself thinking often about The Way We Were, starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. In one unforgettable scene, Streisand's character Katie says to Redford's Hubbell, 'If I push too hard, it's because I want things to be better.' That line helped me with the realisation: I wasn't trying to break us. I was trying to make us expansive enough to hold everything I was becoming. When that couldn't happen, I chose not to contort myself to fit into that limiting tent. Or take Eat Pray Love, where Julia Roberts' character, Liz, leaves a marriage not because it was terrible, but because it was stifling in its sameness. She says, 'I want to marvel at something.' That desire, to marvel, to stretch, to be wide open to the world, is not a rejection of love, but a reaching toward selfhood. She knew she was built for something different, something wider — that recognition is liberating. Then, there's Tamasha, where Deepika Padukone's character, Tara, falls in love with Ved in Corsica, only to be heartbroken when she realises the man he becomes in his routine life is far different from his inner light, his own self. Even in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Abhay Deol's character, Kabir, begins to confront the emotional weight of fitting into his relationship with Natasha, played by Kalki Koechlin. He has to decide if his own desires fit into her expectations. These are not stories of betrayal or failure. They are stories of truth. And the truth is, we can love someone and still choose ourselves. We can walk away from something that looks whole because we recognise a deeper ailment: one that is not about who the other person is, but who we have become. Relationship dynamics shift as people evolve. And staying in something you know will eventually shrink your spirit is one of the quietest, yet riskiest, things you can do — to yourself, and to the person you love. Because when alignment fades, love can curdle into resentment. And no one deserves that. So, I made the hardest, but perhaps the kindest choice I could. I walked away from my 'perfect' relationship. Our final conversations were quiet and gutting. He asked me if I was sure, and I said I was. He asked if I still loved him. I said yes, but added that I loved myself differently now. I could not shrink my curiosity, ambition, or shifting worldview to make someone else comfortable, even if it was someone I adored. He deserves someone who finds joy in the life he wants, and I deserve a life that reflects the depths of who I am becoming. When I tell people I ended a 'perfect' relationship, their first reaction is confusion. 'But everything was fine,' they say. And they are right. Everything was fine. But 'fine' is a dangerous trap. 'Fine' convinces us that comfort is the same as compatibility. 'Fine' is what keeps people captive in unspoken misery for years, trading depth for predictability. When it comes to growth, it doesn't always follow the same timeline. Sometimes, people evolve in parallel directions. Sometimes they don't. My decision underscores identity and autonomy, and not rebellion. I chose a real life, not one of labels. Shruti Kaushal is a social media sieve and catches'em trends before they grow big, especially cinema. She has been a journalist for 4 years and covers trends, art and culture, and entertainment. ... Read More
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist, dies at 99
Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as How Do You Keep the Music Playing?, It Might Be You and the classic The Way We Were, has died aged 99. Bergman died late on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement on Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues 'but continued to write songs till the very end'. The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend. Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, the well-named Sinatra favorite Nice 'n' Easy and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms Maude and Good Times. Their film compositions included Ray Charles's In the Heat of the Night from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison's The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair; and Stephen Bishop's It Might Be You, from Tootsie. The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to The Way We Were, an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch's tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself – a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history's most famous opening stanzas: 'Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.' The Way We Were was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for Windmills of Your Mind and the soundtrack to Yentl, the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all. The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, What Matters Most. On Lyrically, Alan Bergman, Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical Ballroom and provided lyrics for the symphony Visions of America. Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn't meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children's concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn's favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, That Face, which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter. Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master's from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children's songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit Yellowbird. Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. 'Do you know how wonderful you are?' was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer. The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited A Love Like Ours as among their most personal: 'When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.'
CBS News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist who helped write "The Way We Were," dies at 99
Oscar-winning lyricist Alan Bergman, who worked with his wife, Marilyn, in a partnership that produced hits such as "The Way We Were," "It Might Be You" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?," has died, his family announced. He was 99. The family's spokesman, Ken Sunshine, said the legendary lyricist died late Thursday night at his Los Angeles home with his daughter, writer and film producer Julie Bergman, present. "Bergman suffered from respiratory issues in recent months, but continued to write songs till the very end," Sunshine said in a statement. The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until Marilyn's death in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend. Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," the well-named Sinatra favorite "Nice 'n' Easy" and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms "Maude" and "Good Times." Their film compositions included Ray Charles' "In the Heat of the Night" from the movie of the same name, Noel Harrison's "The Windmills of Your Mind" from "The Thomas Crown Affair," and Stephen Bishop's "It Might Be You" from "Tootsie." The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to "The Way We Were," an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch's tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history's most famous opening stanzas: "Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were." "The Way We Were" was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for "Windmills of Your Mind" and the soundtrack to "Yentl," the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all. The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, "What Matters Most." On "Lyrically, Alan Bergman," Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical "Ballroom" and provided lyrics for the symphony "Visions of America." Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn't meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children's concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn's favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, "That Face," which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina and received a master's from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children's songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit "Yellowbird." Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. "Do you know how wonderful you are?" was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer. The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited "A Love Like Ours" as among their most personal: "When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound." Alan Bergman is survived by his daughter and granddaughter, Emily Sender, whom Sunshine said just completed a master's degree in global food studies.
