
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Barbra Streisand is in talks to
launch a concert tour in the fall, her first since a brief "farewell" trek in
2000, her manager said Tuesday.
The possibility was first raised in a gossip column in Tuesday's issue of the
New York Post, but its assertion that ticket prices would top out at $1,500 was
incorrect, a source close to her camp told Billboard.com.
"A tour is being explored, but nothing has been finalized, including
important aspects not entertained in the media speculation today," Streisand's
manager Marty Erlichman told Billboard.com. "As soon as this is resolved one way
or the other -- she may not go out -- the facts will be announced."
Sources say Rolling Stones promoter Michael Cohl is in talks to produce the
Streisand tour. History shows that Streisand, who turns 64 next month, has not
balked at exorbitant ticket prices, and that consumers have not balked at paying
them.
Outside of a John Kerry fundraiser in 2004, Streisand's last public
performances were September 27-28, 2000, at Madison Square Garden, two sellouts
that grossed $14.4 million. Ticket prices for that show, billed as Streisand's
farewell, were $2,500, $1,275, $375 and $150, according to Billboard Boxscore.
Streisand charged the same prices for September 20-21 shows that year at
Staples Center, grossing $12.6 million. Millennium sellouts at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena in Las Vegas grossed $18.2 million, with tickets topping out at
$2,500.
Streisand has previously been credited with shattering the glass ceiling on
concert prices with her 1993-94 tour, which sold out 22 dates with tickets as
high as $350. That outing grossed nearly $60 million.