Oakland Tribune
Bette Midler Brings ‘Pizzazz’ to Palace
December 7, 1973
NEW YORK ,(AP) – Bette Midler, the brash orange-haired pop singer who is one of the hottest acts in show business, opened Monday night with a tremendously entertaining, pizzazz-filled show at the-Palace Theater. The engagement, through Dec. 22, was sold out before it opened.
From the frenetic way Miss Midler dashed around the stage on platform, ankle-strap shoes, arms and’ legs going deliberately awkward, there
will be no power crisis of energy lack during the run.
Miss’ Midler’s bag is camp, theatrical and funny. She is burlesquing herself as a performer and kidding every decade’s music from the 1930s through to this year’s hit “by “Miz Helen Reddy.”
The 28-yeaar-old singer gives at least equal time to talking-about herself, telling jokes, dishing the dirt about a few people and proclaiming the hyperbole so enjoyed by her homosexual followers.
“There are more stars in the audience tonight than in the firmaments of Heaven.” She explained herself, “I’m the last of the truly tacky women, but I’m getting some class’ ain’t I1? Gar-bage, that’s what I do.” And she called herself the Divine Miss M and traoh with flash.
Later, introducing “a bar song,” “Drinking Again,”-Miss Midler said she liked bars that are sleazy, “so sleazy they play Wayne Newton on the
jukebox…”
Miss Midler sings beautifully when she wants to, but it’s obvious that she likes to camp it up a lot, so she doesn’t take an audience into her spell the way a singer can at a concert.
But there’s no doubt that her audience, some decorated in glitter and feathers, considered the Broadway opening night of Miss Main Event.
Related articles
