Big guns come out for Streisand’s new album

Even a showbiz legend needs a little help from her friends. Barbra’s Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway features duets with Chris Pine, Hugh Jackman and more, writes Nicole Evatt.

BALDWIN CAME READY TO PLAY

Barbra Streisand admitted that some stars took a little persuading. Alec Baldwin, for example, feared he didn’t have the vocal chops.

“And I said, ‘You’re a personality and it’s perfect for the song,’” she said of her early conversations with the 30 Rock actor.

“Will you try with me? Because if it’s really terrible we won’t use it. Will you experiment with me? Will you play with me?”

Luckily he agreed and the outcome is the cheeky, romantic duet, The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened, from Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known musical Road Show.

“It’s hard work getting the notes right for people who are not singers, but I know they can act their way through it. They’ll get it and that’s the fun of doing this kind of project,” Streisand said.

FUNNY GIRLS UNITE

Streisand wanted a new twist on the classic Anything You Can Do, from Broadway’s Annie Get Your Gun.

So the Funny Girl star tapped fellow funny lady Melissa McCarthy to reimagine the song as comedic banter between showbiz frenemies.

“When I approached Melissa, the first thing she said to me was, ‘I can’t sing you know’ and so she’s a little bit tone deaf,” Streisand said. “But she compensates with so much personality and so much laughter and so much spontaneity.”

Streisand recalled how McCarthy struggled to hit some of the notes, but other times she nailed it.

“There are moments she sings and I go, ‘Melissa that was fantastic! You sang that beautifully!’ And she surprises herself,” she said.

WILLY WONKA REIMAGINED

“When I was a child I had imagination. I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. You know, I slept in the living room. But I imagined myself as somebody, as having something worthwhile to be noticed and somehow I manifested it. So I know anything is possible,” said Streisand.

This was the idea behind her heartfelt duet, Pure Imagination, from the 1971 film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Streisand teamed with actorfilmmaker Seth MacFarlane for the dreamy ballad and penned a spoken-word introduction about imagination she hoped will resonate with modern audiences.

“The divisiveness, the violence, these are very sad times,” she said. “I just believe in the power of whatever it is — faith, prayer, visualization … who knows what that can manifest?”