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The Leading Men - Streisand's "Boys" from Playbill.com

Question: Why do you think Streisand is such an icon?

Hugh Panaro: There's no one, when you look at the old stuff, the video that exists from when she was like 19 years old on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Judy Garland Show"…there was no one like her then. She was her own creation. It was pretty wild — the abandon in which she performed was pretty amazing. The one thing I didn't know until recently was that she performed like that because she really wanted to act and wasn't necessarily getting cast in the roles that she wanted to do, so she would pick songs that she could act in and tell stories, almost like monologues, but songs. Maybe that's why she was so dynamic because she was approaching them from an acting standpoint rather than just singing a song. Especially growing up and being a keyboard person, I would play in bands, [and] I had a piece of sheet music that had a cover of her with her dog on it, and I'm a crazy dog person, so I thought, "She's got a dog, I like her."

 

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From Broadwayworld.com:

Hugh's First Thought After Getting the News About Touring With Barbra Streisand?

Whether or not it was really going to happen... I think I've gotten very protective of disappointment, so anytime, for example, that I get a Broadway show, I kind of keep myself very calm and prepare myself for worst case scenarios - like it's not going to happen, so that I don't get disappointed. The first night after I calmed myself down, I had a dream that I was at Barbra Streisand's house, making her a margarita, 'cause I'm a really good bartender. We were sitting on her floor drinking them, and I spilled my drink and thought that she was going to kill me because I stained her carpet. Well, of course, she didn't, and was actually really nice about it, so it was a dream with a happy ending.

Who He Told First...

Aside from my family, who I tell everything to, the first person that I think I told is a friend in Nashville. Her name is Diana, and she's a life coach, and also one of my best friends. She's an amazing mom with a beautiful family - 2 little girls – and her reaction, which is why I love her, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Great, can I come? I'll carry your luggage..."

Playbill.com article

Page updated December 7, 2007