Barbra Streisand’s Music Celebrated in Fundraiser ‘Our Name Is Barbra’

Dyan James

For the 18th year, “Our Name is Barbra” returns to the stage where performers from Broadway, Cabaret and television burst into the songs of Barbra Streisand in celebration of her April 24th birthday. This year, the fundraiser will benefit Project Angel Food, a charity that has been around for 25 years cooking and delivering over 10,000 meals each week to people struggling with an illness that prevents them from shopping and cooking for themselves.

The show will feature Mary Wilson of the original Supremes as well as many heavy hitters in the musical theater and cabaret community including Tiffany Bailey, Joshua Lance Dixon and Keith Borden. They’ll belt Streisand’s classic “People,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “Evergreen,” “Papa Can You Hear Me?” and hits from “Funny Girl,” to name a few.

The event will be hosted by Clifford Bell, a top producer/director in the worlds of cabaret, concert and one-person shows. Well established in New York and Los Angeles, Bell’s collaborations include Katey Sagal and Peter Gallagher. Also hosting is Scott Evan Davis, a composer whose work has been performed at Birdland, Feinstein’s and the Metropolitan Room, to name a few. He won MTI’s Courage in Theatre Award for his musical “Powerful Day.” Michael Collum is among the musical directors of the show and will be on piano.

Clifford says “Our Name is Barbra” started years ago as simply a fun night with friends sitting around singing Streisand songs in someone’s living room and ended up as a full-blown show on stage in front of an audience. Inspired by Marianne Williamson’s Los Angeles-based charity Project Angel Food, which Williamson originally created in 1989 to serve mostly those suffering from and homebound because of AIDS, Bell wanted to use the show to support the worthy cause.

“It’s really a perfect marriage of an entertainment idea with the perfect charity,” Bell says of the partnership between the show and the charity.

“Our Name is Barbra” will be at Rockwell Table & Stage” April 24. Purchase tickets here.