Her name is Barbra, and Brooklyn is her town

• Thursday's concert was special for Streisand, who grew up in Brooklyn
• She was nursing a cold, but still sang beautifully

NEW YORK -- Having kicked off her Barbra Live tour in Philly Monday night, Barbra Streisand returned to her native Brooklyn on Thursday for her first public performance there, at the spanking-new Barclays Center. A capacity crowd of 16,500 welcomed the superstar home. Streisand will play Barclays again Saturday night, then move on to Canada, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Jose and Los Angeles.

Famous fans: A list of confirmed attendees included Barbara Walters, Jimmy Fallon, Sting, Katie Couric, Woody Allen, Michael Douglas and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as designers Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors and Streisand's ex, Elliott Gould, whose son Jason sang with his mom.

The way she makes me feel: Michael Argyropoulos, 40, flew from Athens to attend both Brooklyn shows. "With the crisis over there, it wasn't easy. But I had no choice. I had to see her."

Reunited: For Helaine Gersten, 71, of Westfield, N.J., the concert was a reunion of sorts: Gersten said she had attended the Yeshiva of Brooklyn with Streisand -- and sung with her in choir. "Before Barbra entered, I sang Hatikva," the Israeli national anthem. "Then the two of us sang it together, but after that it was never mine again. But I still love her!"

Homecoming queen: A black-and-white slideshow of childhood photos introduce the 70-year-old singer, who emerges in a glittery black dress suit. "The last time I sang solo in Brooklyn was on someone's stoop on Pulaski Street
Street," she says. "I was 8."

The opening number:As If We Never Said Goodbye, complete with lyrical references to Brooklyn and Erasmus (her high school). "Tawk amongst yourselves, I'm getting ferklempt," she tells the crowd.

Sure cure: She says she's sipping chicken soup because she woke up with a cold. Her voice is a little husky, but lacks none of its usual luster.

In memoriam: "My dear friend Marvin Hamlisch could always make me laugh, which is not an easy thing to do." She segues from a lovely The Way We Were into another Hamlisch composition, Through the Eyes of Love (the Ice Castles theme).

A request from the stage: Chris Botti asks for Lost Inside of You and Evergreen (both from A Star Is Born), embellishing on trumpet as she sings. He asks her how many shows she's done, and she says 81. That's a lot, he says, meaning for a year. "That's since 1963!" Streisand tells him.

Mother and child reunion: Streisand introduces "my pride and joy," son Jason Gould. They sit facing each other for How Deep Is the Ocean, with Mom looking at him adoringly. After a standing ovation, she tells him, "You don't need me, honey." But she sits again, to sing a pensive but spirited Here's to Life and People.

In bloom: Botti and Italian pop-opera teen trio Il Vovo join Babs and a choir for a radiant, fittingly theatrical Make Your Garden Grow.

The end: She dismisses retirement rumors, telling the crowd that she keeps being "drawn back" because "you guys make it so gratifying." She finishes out the evening with Some Other Time -- and, on a pointed political note, Happy Days Are Here Again.