Thank you once more to Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), who has blessed us with funny, insightful guest blogs from the set, his childhood, and writing rooms all day! - Nathaniel
by Tom Mizer
I was raised on Barbra Streisand. My mother adored her. She owned The Way We Were and Yentl on VHS. She vacuumed to the “Guilty” album. Every birthday, she joyously opened Bab’s anual release like a Dickens’ orphan getting her yearly pair of shoes. And I was, step by step, initiated into the catechism of Our Lady of Funny Girl. (“Tom, THIS is 'Color Me Barbra'. Let us bow our heads in silence before we begin.”)
So when I met her...Barbra, not my mother...it was brief but epic. And ridiculous. And wonderful. And bittersweet. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, “Meeting Streisand: A Miniature Comic Tragedy in 3 Acts.”
PROLOGUE: Tom is performing in a small Off-Broadway show. (His acting career will consist of playing 15 until he is 30 and appearing in musicals that end in “Live!”) In order to make more money, he is spending days off from the play as an extra in film and TV. The agency calls. They need students for a classroom scene in a film called The Mirror Has Two Faces. Directed by Barbara Streisand...
And the angels sing.
ACT 1: A hallway at Columbia University. It is inspection time as clothes and hair are checked. There are crew members everywhere. Amidst the bustle, a tiny energetic woman in black leggings and a sweater stops in front of Tom. She says hello, looks him over, smiles, and moves on. It is only as she has passed that Tom is fully struck by the fact that he has just been in the presence BARBRA STREISAND. He is stunned. He thought he wouldn’t be able to breathe when the visitation happened but...she was so normal. And the leggings made it look like she had no butt. What a world.
ACT 2: A college classroom. “Students” have been told to just sit on set for a half-hour break; the director is leaving for a bit to look at some footage. Conversation inevitably turns to Streisand and how awesome it is to watch her direct. She’s fun and focused and clearly likes working with Jeff Bridges (whose classroom this is). Then it turns to her other work and Tom is swept back to his catechism. “Oh God, when she brushes Redford’s hair away from his forehead.” Swoons in the room. Tom begins to lead the classroom in a chorus of “The Way We Were.” Suddenly, only he is singing. He turns to see that the director has returned early and is standing in the doorway. She shakes her head at Tom, with schoolmarm exaggeration. But could that be a twinkle in her eye?
my big movie scene in "The Mirror Has Two Faces"
ACT 3: Barbra, as her character Rose, is now in the scene with the students. She has placed Tom next to her for a shot. As the camera pans across the bored classroom, he is to yawn and then she will do a comic bit where she catches herself dropping in sleep. She asks him to yawn for her. He does. She thinks it doesn’t look real. She demonstrates. He does it back. Again. And again. She is inches from his face. She yawns again. He yawns back for real because someone is yawning in his face. She still thinks it isn’t real. He starts to panic. She stops, thinks, then tells him to forget the yawn, but instead raise his hand eagerly, realize he won’t be called on, and drop it in snarky disappointment. Tom does this. She is very happy. They do a few takes. For a few sweet, misty water-colored moments, they are a comic team. Somewhere, Tom’s mother is smiling. And singing along to “Guilty.”
pan to Barbra sleeping
EPILOGUE: Backstage at an Off-Broadway theater. The next day, Tom has a show and no understudy so he couldn’t do more extra work. The film’s AD said it was fine. They would be shooting a scene from later in the film when the class is larger and no one will notice that he is no longer in the room. But later in the day there’s a phone call. It is an actor friend who was also an extra, asking where Tom is.
Tom tries to explain but he can sense the blow coming before it is said. The friend tells him that Barbra came into the classroom and asked for him. By name. She wanted to give him a line of dialogue, to bookend the earlier moment in the film. She was disappointed but gave the line to someone else. The angels weep.
But she knew my name. Once upon a time, Barbra Streisand knew my name. And curtain.
all posts by Tom Mizer...
Childhood movie love
Oscar winners for Best Original Song
Filming Mrs Maisel's Musical Numbers
Movies to Stage -Musical Adaptations
Meeting Barbra Streisand