DIVINE DIVA

Bette Midler unleashes herself on Sin City with her 90-minute revue

Bette Midler is brash, funny, schmaltzy, surprising, poignant, charming, provocative, witty, bawdy and, of course, divine. She8217;s an absolute master of the stinging put-down, she can belt a big, brassy ballad second to none, do a bit of hoofing and is a former Academy Award nominee to boot. So how come nobody ever got Miss M to host the Oscars?

Until that happens, Hollywood8217;s loss is someone else8217;s gain, in this case, Sin City8217;s. She8217;s in Las Vegas with her new gig at the Colosseum, Caesars Palace. She8217;s jumping in with both flippers for a two-year stint in the spot vacated in December by Celine Dion.

Her 90-minute revue, The Showgirl Must Go On, doesn8217;t differ significantly from her concert act8212;she covers her hits and gives generous chunks of time to her two main alter egos: Dolores Delago, the wheelchair-propelled singing mermaid, and the deliciously ribald Soph, the world8217;s oldest showgirl.

8220;It8217;s my most divine divine yet,8221; she said at the outset of a performance. 8220;I8217;m a 8230; goddess!8221; a statement that neatly crystallises the merger of spiritual and temporal that makes Midler8217;s performances such a delight.

Although she launched her career in the 1970s, she8217;s always relied heavily on pre-rock traditions: vaudeville-style performance, Borscht Belt comedy and Vegas kitsch, all informed with a liberating rock 8216;n8217; roll attitude. What she pulls off so skillfully is a yin-yang juxtaposition of low comedy and high art.

In her extended, characteristically outrageous skit as Delago, she8217;s now flanked not just by her three deliberately trashy Harlettes back-up singers, but also by 18 more dancers in the same regalia and matching wheelchairs.

With hardly a breath after that bit concluded, she reappeared in a simple black dress. She sang John Prine8217;s exquisite portrait of the loneliness that can accompany old age, Hello in There, which she originally recorded in 1972.

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She devoted more time to outrageous humour than musical drama and often jabbed at Vegas conventions. Still, with each straightforward song, mostly outwardly syrupy ballads such as The Rose and The Wind Beneath My Wings, Midler extracted something more than what8217;s inherent in each.

Befitting her self-description as 8220;the people8217;s diva,8221; Midler didn8217;t spend much time fretting the little stuff or trying to conceal how much effort goes into anchoring a show like hers. 8220;If I have to cross this stage once more,8221; she said, huffing and puffing across its 200-ft expanse, 8220;I8217;m going to have a stroke!8221;

Despite the great shape she seems to have gotten her 62-year-old body into for this adventure, she wasn8217;t entirely kidding. In contrast to the all-around perfectionism of a Celine-style diva, by letting the seams show Midler becomes that much more human. The more human she seems, the more truly divine she is.8211; Randy Lewis LAT-WP