Photo: BaltoBoy Steve
Bette grabs the brass ring in a divine night of Clooney and Coney
Thursday, February 5, 2004
By BILL WHITE
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Welcome to Coney Island, Bette Midler style.
An imaginary land, somewhere between Broadway and Hollywood, floated into the KeyArena Tuesday night. Arriving from the skies on a carousel horse, Midler inhabited this topsy-turvy world for more than two hours, taking the near-capacity crowd on a musical-comedy tour of her imagination.
“Kiss my brass,” went the opening refrain, as Midler, flanked by three sailor-suited dancers, dashed from one end of the stage to the other, delivering one-liners in a soulful shout that was punctuated by a five-piece horn section.
Christening the people in the front rows as her own little Bellevue, the 58-year-old song and dance comedian promised to perform many songs never before done in concert. Two of them, “Come on-a My House” and “Hey There,” were from her new album, a tribute to Rosemary Clooney.
Midler’s between-song patter was peppered with jokes about everyone from herself (“I opened the door for nasty singers with bad taste”) to Saddam Hussein (“Doesn’t he look so much better since they cleaned him up?”).
The 13-piece band was terrific, giving an old-fashioned authenticity to “Tenderly,” another number popularized by Clooney, which was only partially undercut by Midler’s brassy, Ethel Mermanish pizazz. Her emotionally over-the-top renditions of “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” were a cross between Elvis in Vegas and a drag queen at karaoke.
The first half ended on a subtler note, with a stunning version of Tom Waits’ “Shiver Me Timbers,” which followed a hilariously vulgar detour into burlesque humor.
The second half opened with “Fishtails Over Broadway,” a 20-minute medley of show tunes that may have played better at half the length. The mermaid-costumed dancers proved their worth by dancing without feet, but the fish-themed lyrical parodies were obvious and tiresome. It was Midler’s way of getting the silly business over with in one swoop.
The rest of the show focused on a positive message for peace and a return to better times. A clip from the “Mr. Rogers” show represented a more innocent and well-mannered era. Her duet with his “I Like To Be Told” contrasted nicely with the anti-war material that followed.
First up was “September,” a flip side to Toby Keith’s post-9/11 attitudes, which was followed by Julie Gold’s “From a Distance,” introduced by Midler as her “favorite song from the last Bush war.”
Midler earned a standing ovation with a dramatic version of “The Wind Beneath My Feet, ” and closed with the audience joining in on “The Rose.” She encored with “Friends,” a light, cheerful piece that had the audience smiling and clapping.
It had been a satisfying night trip through the Coney Island of Midler’s mind. At one point, her alter ego, Dorothy Delago, admitted, “Maybe I’m a freak, but I’m a freak with a dream.” It is a dream that captures both the vulgar and sentimental heart of America; an amped-up and camped-up ride on a carousel horse into the razzle-dazzle of a fading neon horizon.
