‘Brooks Sings Barbra’

As a latchkey kid growing up in Chicago, Charlene Brooks would come home after school and listen to Barbra Streisand albums over and over, trying to sing just like her icon.

“She was my first voice teacher,” said Brooks. But Brooks, like Streisand, had stage fright, and no one—not even her parents—ever heard her sing until she was 21 years old. As she grew older, Brooks gained the confidence to sing in public and, after a misguided stint at a desk job in an office, she focused her full attention on her music career.

Now, all these years later, Brooks—a Jewish singer, cabaret performer, writer, lyricist, and actress—will sing Streisand favorites in the cabaret show “Brooks Sings Barbra,” co-written by Eileen Collins, on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Skokie Theatre. The show incorporates Brooks’s own stories into the show. She weaves comical and moving stories that pair well with many of Streisand’s songs, including “Papa Can You Hear Me,” “People,” and “Happy Days are Here Again.”

For instance, Brooks introduces Streisand’s hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by sharing the story of Myra and Aaron. For years, Myra had wanted her husband, Aaron, to bring her flowers like her girlfriend’s husband would send to his wife at work. Then, Myra learns that her girlfriend’s husband is cheating on her. Myra changes her tune, saying, “Honey, don’t buy me flowers—just call.”

Back in the spring, Brooks performed her show “Life Stinks! (and Other Things My Mother Taught Me),” a funny and poignant love note to her mother and her late father. For many years, Brooks has performed cabaret shows at Chicago nightclubs. “My mother would always sit in the front row and she would be heckling me the whole time,” she said. “She always gets bigger laughs than I do.”

The mother of two grown children, Brooks keeps a sense of humor about her family, despite their tragic family history. Brooks’s parents, both Polish, survived the Holocaust, her father from Auschwitz and her mother from labor camps, and met in Germany after the war. Both of their entire families were wiped out in the camps. “It was very odd growing up never having grandparents, never having aunts, uncles, cousins, nobody,” said Brooks. “I always felt like an orphan even though I had parents.”

Her older sister and brother were born in Europe, while Brooks was born in Chicago after her family immigrated here in 1949, where they opened a cleaning/tailoring business. As a little girl, her parents would invite their immigrant friends over every Saturday night to play cards. She recalls the commotion of their gatherings—drinking, singing, fighting, playing, and her father whistling. She would understand bits and pieces of what they would say in Yiddish about their experience during the war, a topic her parents never broached with their children.
In addition to her shows, Brooks also created the company Custom Cabaret, which combines her talents as a comedian, musician, and lyricist. The company offers personalized musical tributes to people celebrating milestone events such as birthdays or engagements.

And balancing out the many facets of her musical career, Brooks fulfills her more spiritual side by acting as a cantorial soloist at her synagogue, Congregation Bene Shalom in Skokie.

No matter where she performs, Brooks says she hopes audiences find her music both moving and joyous. “I’m not happy at my shows unless people laugh and cry,” she said. “When I go to a show, I want people to make me feel. Streisand does that and I hope that I do that too.”

Brooks will perform in “Brooks Sings Barbra” on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. at the Skokie Theatre in Skokie.

To purchase tickets, visit www.skokietheatre.com or call (847) 677-7761. For more information, visit www.charlenebrooks.com.