Charlene Brooks offers a Streisand valentine

• Reprints

Skokie singer Charlene Brooks

Updated: February 7, 2012 9:39PM

Barbra Streisand taught Charlene Brooks how to sing. That’s the multitalented Skokie performer’s story and she’s sticking to it.

“I was a latchkey child so I was home alone a lot. My parents had their own business and they both worked all day,” Brooks related. She filled her time listening to several of her parents’ record albums repeatedly. One was Streisand’s “Funny Girl.”

“I had a little tape recorder,” Brooks said. “I would listen to her music and then I would stop every phrase or two and record it until I thought I had got it just right. Then I’d go on.”

From that beginning, Brooks has carved a diverse career as a cabaret performer, singer, cantorial soloist, actress, writer and lyricist.

That early training with Streisand had a definite impact, though. Brooks noted that audience members
frequently tell her, “You know who you remind me
of ... ” When she was younger, people sometimes stopped her on the street and told her that she looked like Streisand.

Musical connection

“I felt this connection with her,” Brooks said. “There weren’t too many openly Jewish singers that I knew about. She was funny and she has a unique face, as I did. She resonated with me. I loved the passion that she put in all of her music — a controlled intensity.”

It seemed only a matter of time before Brooks would create an homage to her “mentor.” You will hear the vocal resemblance when “Brooks Sings Barbra,” on Valentine’s Day at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights.

Brooks emphasized that she will not be doing an impersonation of Streisand. “Even though it’s her music. It’s still me,” she said.

What Brooks will be doing is singing songs Streisand made famous in Brooks’ own style, accompanied by a four-piece band. The song list includes, “Something’s Coming,” “People,” “Evergreen,” “The Way We Were,” “Don’t Rain on my Parade,” “A Cock-Eyed Optimist,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “A Piece of Sky,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and many more numbers.

“I’m going to do some of the ones that people recognize plus a couple ones that I love to do,” Brooks said. That includes “Queen Bee,” which she called “kind of a funk tune from ‘A Star is Born.’ ”

Brooks created her Streisand show seven years ago in response to numerous requests. “The postcard that I sent out said, ‘Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it,’ ” she recalled.

Fan favorite

The show premiered at Davenport’s in Chicago. “It was the first time I ever sold out,” Brooks said. “It was so much fun and everybody was so responsive. I’ve taken it to different places and people never get tired of it.”

That’s why Brooks said “Yes” when she received a call from Metropolis asking if she would do a Barbra show for Valentine’s Day.

Brooks, whose shows
are as loved for her stories as her gorgeous voice,
won’t disappoint her fans
at this one. “I like to personalize everything,” she explained. “There is some information about her
that I think is interesting. It’s not a history lesson. There’s some cute little stories that I’ve heard her tell and stories that I know about her.”

The Metropolis audience will learn why after recording “My Funny Valentine,” Streisand didn’t sing it again for 40 years.

Brooks won’t make you wait that long. “This is Valentine’s Day so I’m definitely going to do it,” she said.