BETTE MIDLER’S NEW SHOW—FIRST PHOTOS & AN ADVANCE PEEK
Superstar entertainer Bette Midler will prove she’s become a super showgirl Vegas style tomorrow night when she premieres her brand new Caesars Palace show—with both Cher and Barry Manilow expected among the first night VIPs!
Bette brings the house down when she struts on stage under a 20-foot tall outrageously oversized headdress made from over 60 pink-hued silk feathers. Since it weighs 3,200 lbs, Bette wont be able to actually wear it—but its hung over her from the ceiling in the “feathers” number just before her finale in The Show Girl Must Go On. It’s so big, even Bette admits, “it’s half the size of Tennessee!”
And if it’s a sign of good luck longevity please take note that in her dressing room she’s even using Frank Sinatra’s grand piano—restored for the run! It’s Bette’s first full concert appearance since she ended her two-year Kiss My Brass tour back in 2005 in Australia.
Bette gave the blessing for last night’s Luxe Life advance peek at the show, and all I can say is I’m semi-speechless—It is absolutely incredible and truly one of the most exciting, energized, spectacular one-woman show you’ll ever see. It’s a nonstop 110-minute rollercoaster of fabulous frivolous fun, dynamic dancing and stunning songs. She redefines the entire word “entertainment” in a world of her own—and not for one moment would you believe this 5’1” dynamo is 62 years young! Bravo!
And yes, that video Luxe Life featured two-weeks ago with Bette, Cher and Elton John all appearing together is right there on the giant video-wall!
“It’s nothing like the sameness of the Cirque shows,” one of her team told me. “It’s more like the old Vegas where one performer holds the fort with sensational singing, fantastic comedy, glamorous showgirls and knockout dancing. Bette is one of the very few superstars who can do it all successfully.”
It’s more than just wow from Bette—she simply never stops going over the top, both with the songs and the sass! Her energy never flags because it appears as if she’s on-stage for almost the entire near two-hour production. She’s beautifully bawdy, complete with the “F” word in more than a few places for comic punctuation that had the audience howling.
It’s more than just “pow” from the 13-piece band who belt out their boisterous big brass sounds and remain on-stage throughout in their Red Rock desert setting. It’s more than just the cleverly choreographed action by Toni Basil of the 20-gorgeous girl dancers who infectiously make you want to leap into their line-up.
It’s far more than the three high-energy, perfect pitch Harlettes that serve as Bette’s brilliant backup vocalists. It’s the never before seen extravagance and opulence of the scenery and setting. And to be honest, the femininity of the seemingly near naked nude dancers with pasties under see-through bras and G-strings are eye-enhancers, too! Those sure are skimpy-clothes—sassy and saucy! You will be speechless when you see the 45 foot tall trees and finely-threaded strands of shimmering curtains made up from hundreds of thousands of hand-painted gold coins. Early on in the show even the audience is showered with the gold-flakes! Show producer John Meglin, head of AEG/Concerts West, told me I wouldn’t be far off-target if I reported they’d spent more than $15-million just on the audio and visual staging.
Dazzling designer Michael Levine, who won raves for his totally amazing sets for the New York Metropolitan Opera Company’s production of Madame Butterfly and the Toronto Opera Company’s Rings, admits it’s the largest budget he’s ever been handed and more than the most expensive Broadway show ever staged!
Show Girl’s scenery and backdrops were a year in the making, and he supervised the staggering sets built in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles and then shipped here. Audiences will also want to play among the amazing video illusion of the rain and desert storm pink cloud kaleidoscope of crazed colors that wraps the backdrop movie-screen sized monitor as it changes to a new High Definition resolution video scenario every five minutes.
Michael admits his creation is themed between the showgirls and the seasons as if Bette had arrived in the desert to make magic. Celine Dion’s super state-of-the-art sound system has even been upgraded with new soundboards along with all-new lighting for the 120-foot stage, plus mechanical platforms that are motorized to raise Bette above and around the stage.
Simply put, this is Vegas at its very glitzy best, and the buzz from here on out will be in ecstatic overdrive. You’re guaranteed her hits “Bugle Boy of Company B,” “The Rose” and “Wind Beneath my Wings.” When Bette sings she’s so powerful and emotional the audience is simply spellbound! She got a rare mid-show standing ovation for her rendition of “When A Man Loves a Woman.” You’re guaranteed the antics of the beloved wheelchair bound mermaid with her famous characters, Delores Delgado and old-timer foul-mouthed dirty joke queen Sophie.
The Esther Williams-styled water ballet with all 24 on-stage ladies in mermaid-tails rolling-about the stage in electric wheelchairs is just one extraordinary hoot and would have the Rockettes from Radio City jealous of the precision maneuvers to Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas” hit. Watch for Bette to be hoisted by a giant construction crane hook as she flies up over the stage and fires away with her Cirque du So-Long jab!
From her on-stage arrival wearing a silver-lame suit on a real-live donkey after the “tornado cyclone” hits Vegas on video to the elegant cocktail dress she wears for the finale for her hit-songs, Bette is a fabulous fashion statement. She has five costumes in all, complete with a billowy orange gown, a greenish-silvery sparkling dress and a golden cloak over a leg-baring mini.
Bette told me that each night there would be script changes as she works in the latest comedic rifts from today’s topical headlines—both locally and nationally. Bette plots with famed comedy writer Bruce Vilanch on that segment daily, and he is the master of his trade! The routine with tabloid magazine covers featuring the usual suspects of Britney and Lindsay as Hollywood’s troubled young starlets is priceless and I’m not going to spoil the surprise ending of just who started the whole tasteless-trend of commando fashion-rage in the first place!
I had the privilege of watching Bette earlier last year when she did a semi run-through of her powerful pizzazz at my friend, billionaire Joe Hardy’s 84th private birthday celebration. I told Bette then if she even comes equal to that she’d win Vegas over—hard to believe, but she’s actually executed it 10-times better!!
Her American Idol segment with the ever-distorting video-faces of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson as they “audition” Delores Delgado is perhaps one of the hysterically funniest moments in live-show history! But the one-liners and zingers that litter the show are all gems in their own right. For example, just who gets the room between Toni Braxton’s legs on the giant wall-poster at the Flamingo? Bette even promises that not one of her dancers is a French Canadian circus performer!
If Bette and the cast perform at tomorrow night’s red-carpet celebrity premiere, as they did at my sneak preview last evening, then she’s right at the top all over again and she ensures Caesars reigns supreme on the Strip with the same or better audience appeal as the recently departed Celine Dion! Remember it is over 4,000 seats a night that Bette will fill, and Caesars executives told me they are thrilled because, “right out of the gate both Bette and Cher are now selling at the unbelievable rate that Celine did.”
The Concerts West head honcho, John Meglin told me: “Both Bette and ourselves feel it’s all gone tremendously well. We’re both very happy how it has all turned out. I have to take my hat off to her because she is the hardest working woman in show business I’ve ever met. She’s been down here first thing in the morning and she’s the last person to leave at night. The reason she decided not to go to the Grammys was because she simply didn’t want to stop working to make Show Girl the best it could possibly be. She’s achieved her goal better than anybody can imagine. We’re still tweaking the mechanical stuff—the lighting cues, the video cues, the sound cues and the moving stage parts down to the last minute—but our two run-throughs before the premiere have been fantastic. Everything that happens on the stage with her is fine. Yes, everybody is nervous right now in the final 48 hours, but Bette is happy with the way it has all come together. We’ve given her more bells and whistles than she’s ever worked with before, more than Celine in one way and more than Cher will have in her way, and I’m already telling you—Cher’s show will be another knockout spectacular.”
Bette’s two-year, mega-rich deal at Caesars has her working 20-weeks a year—a long way from when she earned just $300 a night singing in a gay Manhattan bath-house with Barry Manilow as her backup pianist. In fact she says that Barry, now a resident headliner at the Hilton, and Celine Dion herself thoroughly convinced her to become a Vegas regular. The singer says that she’s kept all of Celine’s giant humidification vaporizers to ensure she doesn’t get “Vegas throat” from our desert dryness. Celine even passed on her all doctors’ phone numbers to Bette!
“Barry told me working steady in Vegas is the greatest gig of his life,” she added.
Barry is expected to be one of the many celebrities turning out for the gala first night and insiders are whispering that Cher, who follows her into The Colosseum with her own run as of May 6, will probably attend, too!
We’ll have all that coverage with photos and interviews right here on Thursday morning. Her best friends here, my neighbors, boxing promoter Bob Arum and his wife Lovee will also be first-night boosters.
Luxe Life encourages you to tune into NBC’s Today Show tomorrow morning for the interview and backstage tour with Bette that she gave to Meredith Vieira who flew in from New York and LA with her cameras.
Says Bette: “This whole Vegas experience is going to be great—it is the best gig in the world.”
The spine-tingling thrill of Bette’s songs and her unique humor will keep your high running for hours from the show’s adrenalin rush. You’ll want to race out and text all your friends that she’s the new no.1 star in Vegas and her show is the “must-see” sensation.
Bette summed it all up: “The show is colorful and joyous and all I wanted to do was spread a little joy around. I really do think I am going to have a ball doing that for the next couple of years.”