Stream It Or Skip It: ‘One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’ on Paramount+, Where The Legendary Entertainer Gives His Final Public Performance

Lady Gaga had quite the Thanksgiving Weekend. November 24 marked the opening of House of Gucci, where she stars as the power-hungry Patrizia Reggiani, and the singer headlined CBS’ programming the following Sunday night with One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (Paramount+), a concert special filmed over two sold-out shows presented at in August 2021 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to honor performing legend and 95th birthday boy Tony Bennett.

ONE LAST TIME: AN EVENING WITH TONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “How do you honor the most important and enduring voice of the last century?” Lady Gaga asks in voiceover as One Last Time begins and scenes of Gaga and Bennett singing and laughing together play. “I want to honor him tonight by giving more than I ever knew I had, and making Tony proud.”

The Gist: Cheek to Cheek, the Grammy-winning 2014 album from Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Gaga, the star more well-known for outlandish pop spectacle, and Bennett, the veteran voice of the American songbook, proved to be thick as thieves, and followed up their first collaboration with the Cole Porter tribute Love For Sale, released this past September. One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga presents material from the pair’s two-night stand at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021, with Gaga performing a solo set to open, followed by a set break and Bennett’s solo performance, and then a duo setup for the show’s final portion. Bennett turned 95 in August, and these shows were billed as his final public performances; the Queens, New York-born, multiple-Grammy winning singer of jazz and big band standards was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016, and has largely retired from public life due to his condition and advanced age. The disease doesn’t stop him from belting out the classics here, however. Bennett might stick close to the piano, but his voice comes alive on some of the most well-known songs from his eight decades in show business, and Lady Gaga maintains a mood hovering between reverence for her legendary collaborator and the built-in irreverence of a natural performer.

After an introductory spin through “Luck be a Lady” where she salutes Bill Clinton sitting in the front row and enlists the audience in celebrating Bennett’s big 95th, Lady Gaga recounts her initial encounter with the singer — “I looked crazy. I had blonde in my hair and black in my hair, four big velvet bows on my face…I was doing my thing…” — before busting into the jazz standard “Orange Colored Sky” (“Wham! Bam! Al-a-kazam!”), “Let’s Do It” from her longtime inspiration Cole Porter, and “New York, New York,” which becomes the introductory number for Bennett himself. After a curtain drop he appears, working easily into Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and a quiet, jazz guitar-plucked rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon.” One Last Time finds its way toward a finale with Gaga rejoining Bennett for a medley of “Happy Birthday” and “Lady is a Tramp,” and they return to the Cole Porter songbook explored on Love For Sale before Bennett closes it out with his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” It’s a fitting, if decidedly poignant end for an entertainer whose indelible mark on entertainment is undeniable.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It originally aired on CBS, and it’s available to stream on Paramount+. But what One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga most harkens back to is marquee PBS programming, especially during pledge drives. From its orchestra clad in formal wear to utter lack of pretense — there are no strobe lights here, no flashy backup dancers; this is a concert to honor a senior member of the show business pantheon, with Lady Gaga as a willing participant — One Last Time recalls the concert specials public broadcasting would air from any of Bennett’s peers, Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand among them.

Our Take: There’s probably nobody on this earth who will ever get as much mileage out of “Wow!” as Tony Bennett. “What a crowd!” With over 70 albums to his credit, an absolutely giant voice, and a signature charm that’s been making listeners melt for decades, the man born Anthony Dominick Benedetto proves with his performance in One Last Time that doing more with less is still a virtue, and that he’s still got “that thing.” In interviews for 60 Minutes the preceded the concerts at Radio City, Bennett’s family members and longtime musical collaborators admitted they were unsure what effect his condition would have on the shows. But what he lacks in mobility, Bennett makes up for with ringing vocal verve, hitting big notes and finding the intangible phrasing that makes standards from Berlin and Porter and the rest ring with lasting fervor.

As for Lady Gaga, she acquits herself well of the classic jazz material, adhering to the traditional style of singing these songs, but also bringing her irrepressible personality to the proceedings, too. She’ll stop a song to speak asides to the audience, or shout out a former US president; she’ll ask her drummer, who’s busy playing a solo, to hand over her patent leather top hat, which she then uses to tromp on his cymbals. “Can anybody guess who the man of the hour is?” she exclaims midway through “New York, New York,” and the audience cheers, because in One Last Time, Gaga never loses sight of her role, not just as a collaborator and duet partner, but as the concerts’ in-house, on-stage hype person for a stone-cold legend.

Sex and Skin: Come on, no way. Gaga does do a few “va va va voom!” sashays in her stage gown finery.

Parting Shot: “Tony, we’re all so grateful to have witnessed your talent, your generosity, your creativity, and your kindness, and your service throughout all these years,” Lady Gaga tells her singing partner and mentor. “Mr. Bennett, it would be my honor to escort you off the stage.” And there’s a final wave to the crowd from Bennett as the band plays them off and Gaga holds his arm, and perhaps holds him steady, too.

Sleeper Star: Pianist Alex Smith played on the Cheek to Cheek album with Bennett and Gaga, and is the keyboardist and arranger for Gaga’s jazz quintet. Here, during a rousing version of the Cole Porter classic “Let’s Do It,” he hops from the grand piano at center stage to a gorgeous Hammond organ, and proceeds to whip out a swaggering solo.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Give it up for the orchestra! It’s Tony Bennett’s birthday and we’re in New York City!” Lady Gaga is the ringmaster for One Last Time, and keeps the atmosphere light and rich with classic-minded entertainment vibes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. And stream it in particular if your parents are visiting for Christmas. One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga is both a fitting public farewell for a musical legend and a fun throwback to the golden age of live entertainment.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch One Last Time on Paramount+