Auditorium welcomes star

Wednesday night's IU Auditorium audience will see the closest thing to Barbra Streisand they're liable to get in a long while. \nDebbie Reynolds, legendary star of stage and screen, will bring her variety show, which includes impressions of Streisand and other well-known performers, to Bloomington for one night only. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are $15-20 for students or $30-40 for the public.\n"I do singing and dancing, and I do impressions of Barbra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn and Bette Davis and Cher and people like that, you know, comedy for the show," Reynolds said. "And we do songs, Stephen Sondheim and I do a tribute to Judy Garland, a medley of her favorite songs. And I do a country section just because people enjoy it. I try to do a variety of things, because that's the kind of show people mostly enjoy."\nReynolds, who has starred in 67 films during her 68 years, is perhaps best known for the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain," in which she starred with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. That film is scheduled as part of the City Lights Film Series Feb. 16.\n"It wasn't intentional because we planned the series months ago. It was really sort of a happy coincidence for us, too," Eric Beckstrom, City Lights cofounder and board member, said. "But we'll use it as a selling point nonetheless. I think we're going to draw a big crowd for that film."\nMany of Reynolds' songs will sound familiar to her fans, as she will perform numbers from shows of which she has been a part.\n"I do movie clips, and then I sing the songs from 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'Tammy' and '(The Unsinkable) Molly Brown' and 'The Tender Trap' and 'The Singing Nun,'" Reynolds said. "I sing some songs from 'Annie Get Your Gun,' which was a play I did."\nBrian Rives, general manager of the Auditorium, said Reynolds was chosen by Auditorium subscribers as a performer they would like to see. \n"She's also having a new spurt in her career, with being on 'Will & Grace,' and we thought she'd be a wonderful addition to the season," Rives said. "We also look at availability -- obviously Barbra Streisand is out of the question."\nReynolds, who spends about 42 weeks of the year on tour, said she prefers live entertaining to film or TV.\n"I like the stage. I like live performing, and I don't really want to do a flat, booked show (where) you go to Broadway and do eight shows a week, and you sign on for two years," she said. "That's what I don't really want to do. I have done that. Done that, been there. I'm more like George Burns; I like live variety, and so that's what I do."\nRives said he expected Reynolds' performance to be a worthwhile diversion.\n"I've seen clips of it. I think it's going to be a fun time," Rives said. "This is a lady who knows how to entertain a crowd"