lifestyle WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2016 MUSIC & MOVIES Barbra Streisand enlists A-list pals for Broadway album ometimes even Barbra Streisand needs a little help from actor. “Will you try with me? Because if it’s really terrible we Imagination,” from the 1971 film, “Willy Wonka and the her friends. The 74-year-old stage and screen legend won’t use it. Will you experiment with me? Will you play with Chocolate Factory.” Sdecided early on that her 36th studio album would fea- me?” Luckily he agreed and the outcome is the cheeky, roman- Streisand teamed with actor-filmmaker Seth MacFarlane for ture Broadway duets. So she called on some of her friends and tic duet, “The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened,” from the dreamy ballad and penned a spoken-word introduction favorite actors, including Anne Hathaway, Daisy Ridley, Hugh Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known musical, “Road Show.” “It’s about imagination she hoped will resonate with modern audi- Jackman, Chris Pine and Bradley Cooper, to bring her vision to hard work getting the notes right for people who are not ences. “The divisiveness, the violence, these are very sad times,” life. The result, “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway,” is a singers, but I know they can act their way through it. They’ll get she said. “I just believe in the power of whatever it is - faith, quirky mix of surprising and entertaining collaborations pulled it and that’s the fun of doing this kind of project,” Streisand said. prayer, visualization ... who knows what that can manifest?” from hit musicals like “My Fair Lady” and “A Chorus Line,” as well more obscure productions such as “Evening Primrose” and Funny girls unite Foxx for the finish “Smile.” Streisand wanted a new twist on the classic “Anything You Streisand had full confidence that Jaimie Foxx would rise to Despite the group effort, the album - out Friday - is still Can Do,” from Broadway’s “Annie Get Your Gun.” So the “Funny the challenge of performing one of Broadway’s most-beloved authentically Streisand. “Records I have control over,” said Girl” star tapped fellow funny lady Melissa McCarthy to reimag- songs: “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from “The Sound of Music.” “I did Streisand, who was hands-on with every aspect, from song con- ine the song as comedic banter between showbiz frenemies. because I saw him get an Academy Award for playing Ray ception to directing each performance. “That’s what I cared “When I approached Melissa, the first thing she said to me was ‘I Charles. So I know he can sing,” she said. “His soulfulness, his about as a young performer as well. I didn’t know about what can’t sing you know’ and so she’s a little bit tone deaf,” Streisand great voice ....he was able to sing it in one session, you know. I salary it was,” she recalled. “I cared about creative control. That explained. “But she compensates with so much personality and mean he’s that good. So I was thrilled. I was thrilled to sing with nobody can tell me what to sing or force me to sing or album so much laughter and so much spontaneity.” Streisand recalled him.” cover design or anything that had to do with my creativity. It how McCarthy struggled to hit some of the notes, but other Streisand closes the album with the soulful, moving duet, had to feel right to me.” In a recent interview at the oceanside times she nailed it. “There are moments she sings and I go, which she said is about “having dreams and taking chances.” Malibu, California, studio where she recorded “Encore,” Streisand ‘Melissa that was fantastic! You sang that beautifully!’ And she “Step-by-step we will get there,” said Streisand of her approach delved into her directing process with some of the biggest surprises herself,” she said. to any obstacle. “We will climb that mountain. You have to have names in Hollywood. faith in today’s world. Don’t you?” — AP Willy wonka reimagined Baldwin came ready to play “When I was a child I had imagination. I lived in Brooklyn. Streisand admitted that some stars took a little persuading. You know, I slept in the living room. But I imagined myself as Alec Baldwin, for example, feared he didn’t have the vocal somebody, as having something worthwhile to be noticed and chops. “And I said, ‘You’re a personality and it’s perfect for the somehow I manifested it. So I know anything is possible,” said In this file photo Barbra Streisand presents the award for song,’” she said of her early conversations with the “30 Rock” Streisand. This was the idea behind her heartfelt duet, “Pure best musical at the Tony Awards in New York. — AP Aretha Franklin cancels shows on doctors’ orders ospel legend Aretha Franklin has scrapped upcoming shows for health reasons, the 74-year- Gold announced-her latest in a series of cancella- tions dating back to last year. “Regretfully, due to doc- tors’ orders I will have to cancel a few concerts for the next month or so,” she said in a statement Monday with- out further details on her condition. Franklin has called off several shows since 2015. She nixed a Las Vegas con- cert a year ago citing exhaustion and put off a small tour of Florida in March citing problems with her back- up band. Among the latest cancellations, Franklin will no longer participate in a 90th birthday celebration for Former professional boxer Roberto Duran, left, and actor Edgar Actor Usher Raymond, left, actor Ana de Armas, Grace Hightower, actor Robert De Niro, actor Edgar crooner Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall in New Ramirez, who plays Duran in the film, pose together at the US pre- Ramirez and director Jonathan Jakubowicz pose together at the US premiere of “Hands of Stone” at York. Franklin had earlier been named as the headliner miere of “Hands of Stone” at the SVA Theatre. — AP photos the SVA Theatre. of an inaugural New York festival in September that would also feature leading winemakers. But after announcing the “City Winery Open” festival, organizers said they were pushing it back to 2017 for logistical rea- sons. Franklin, who has won 18 Grammys, is best known for her feminist-tinged cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect.” The daughter of a Baptist minister, she recorded her first ‘Hands of Stone’, an intimate portrait of a boxer album in his church in Detroit when she was 14. She last year sang “Amazing Grace” before Pope Francis as rom a building in Manhattan’s midtown, Roberto Duran got to the top. The hunger you suffered, the sacrifices that you he visited Philadelphia for the massive Festival of and Edgar Ramirez can see Madison Square Garden. “The made. The thefts, ... The friends that I call ‘the bloodsuckers,’ Families. — AFP FGarden, many good memories,” says the Panamanian those that exploit you and rob you.” about the New York arena where he won two world titles: the There is a moving scene when Arcel, working Duran’s cor- first of his successful career in 1972 and his third in 1983. At ner, wipes the hair from the boxer’s face in a fatherly gesture. 65, Duran’s energetic personality remains intact, telling anec- The reason, Duran said, was that his long hair prevented him dotes and making jokes just as he used to do at the height of from seeing his opponent’s punches, but at the same time it his career as a bruising, head-on boxer. served as a ruse. “It had to do with the strategy,” Ramirez said. Ramirez, 39, is impressed by the physique of the man he “Every time, when he returned to fighting after each round. portrays in “Hands of Stone,” a film that bears the nickname of And if his hair was combed this obviously gave the opponent the athlete who fought 119 bouts in five decades, which a sense of vulnerability.” “When we think about boxing movies, opens Friday. “Roberto, you’re lean, you’re in shape,” says the many people classify them as sports movies, but this is a dra- Venezuelan actor. Duran is happy with a regime that has ma. It is a film that talks about how you win and how you lose helped him stay fit and new fitness equipment he just in your head,” the actor added. acquired. Filmed in Panama and New York, the movie by The film is being promoted as the “biggest” Latin American Venezuelan writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz tells the sto- production. Except for the fights choreographer and the cos- ry of a boxer that emerges from extreme poverty to reach tumes designer, the rest of the crew is Latin American. This is fame and fortune. It shows the rivalry between Duran and the third real life character Ramirez has portrayed, after terror- Sugar Ray Leonard, portrayed by Usher, including their two ist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez “El Chacal” in Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos” bouts for the welter title in 1980. Actors Usher Raymond, left, and Edgar Ramirez, who play and Simon Bolivar in “The Liberator.” “I’ve had the fortune of Thirty five years after starring as Jake LaMotta in Martin Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, pose with the real coming across wonderful characters like Roberto Duran,” Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” Robert De Niro plays Ray Arcel, Duran’s Sugar Ray Leonard, right, at the US premiere of “Hands of Ramirez said. “What caught my attention is that he’s more septuagenarian trainer. And Panamanian actor and salsa star Stone” at the SVA Theatre.