For former St. Petersburg resident Sharon Owens, a resemblance in face and voice to the legendary Barbra Streisand has been worth more than 15 minutes of fame.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published August 12, 2004
[FOX photos]
Sharon Seifried Owens before her transformation into Barbra Streisand for Performing As, a show on the Fox network last summer.
As Streisand, Owens placed third on the show, behind Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin look-alikes.
Sharon Seifried Owens left town as an amateur singer who had worked mostly in community theater. She returns this weekend as a superstar.
Specifically, she returns as Barbra Streisand.
Right around this time last year, Owens appeared on a Fox network show called Performing As. The idea of the show, the summer substitute for American Idol, was to have relatively unknown singers impersonate some of the biggest stars in show biz.
Judges awarded $20,000 to each week's winner. At summer's end, the weekly winners competed for $200,000.
Owens, a lifelong Streisand fan, won her weekly competition, singing The Way We Were. Her Streisand finished third in the finals, behind people aping the Chairman of the Board and the Queen of Soul.
"I got the boot from Frankie and Aretha," Owens said.
She parlayed her proverbial 15 minutes of fame into 12 months' worth so far, appearing as Streisand across the United States and even in Berlin. A Las Vegas show under the Performing As banner is coming up.
Owens, who now lives in the Los Angeles area, grew up in St. Petersburg, and most of her family still lives here. She'll bring her Barbra back home this weekend for a performance at the Largo Cultural Center. The show is a benefit for A Brighter Day, a local charity that helps homeless families with children become self-sufficient.
Owens' cousin Wayne Seifried founded A Brighter Day, and many of her family members are active in the charity. When they heard that Owens was going to be in town for her 20th high school reunion (she graduated from Northside Christian School), they asked if she'd perform a benefit concert.
"I perform with live musicians, but for this show there are budget limitations, so I'll be singing to recorded music," Owens said. "I have an hourlong Barbra show, and that's what I'll be doing."
Owens admits that there's something a bit strange about gaining fame in another, much more famous, persona. It's especially ironic in her case because the thought of being a Streisand impersonator never occurred to her until last year.
"I've always loved Barbra Streisand, and people have always told me I sounded like her, and even that I looked like her a little bit," she said. "Then I saw the notice for auditions for this show and I thought, "You know, that's right up my alley."'
Once she made it through the audition process, Hollywood makeup artists and vocal coaches helped complete her transformation into Streisand.
Her TV appearance brought e-mails from lots of old friends from St. Petersburg who had lost touch over the years. One person she hasn't heard from is Streisand herself.
"It's amazing how often people ask me that, "Has Barbra Streisand contacted you?"' Owens said. "But even though I'm a huge fan, I don't especially want to hear from her. Mainly, I don't want her to tell me to stop."
PREVIEW: Sharon Owens appears at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Largo Cultural Center in a benefit performance for A Brighter Day. Tickets are $15 at the door, or in advance by calling (727) 367-3737.
