Mr. Retro:
Since the concert was received so well I decided to share some rare rehearsal footage, so please enjoy it!
The video quality is poor but the sound is quite nice, Bette Midler always gives it her all.
Divine Miss Millenium Rehearsals
Songlist:
From A Distance
I´m Beautiful
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
Do You Want To Dance/Medley
Lullaby In Blue
Otto Titsling
Marihuana
The Lady Is A Tramp/Sophie Tucker Jokes
Mister D:
Mister Retro is right. It is something else seeing a pro work before a show. Unfortunately for me and my scatterbrained self, I either forget my phone or I don’t think of it all.
I was able to see her 2001 Hulaween Rehearsal that had been changed to a celebration of New York instead. It wasn’t but a little over a month that the twin towers had fallen. Bette was going to cancel Hulaween but Mayor Guilliani asked her to please still put her party on because they wanted things to try to return back to normal as soon as possible. Of course, Bette Midler did a lot those few months between New York and Boston. She sang at the Prayer For America, countless funerals in New York and Boston, and she ushered in Mayor Bloomberg with a breathtaking but somber rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” I had never heard it sung like that with Ms. Bette Sussman at the piano, 3 background singers, and Bette herself in a genius arrangement that caught the mood of the times.
The other was kind of a rehearsal. I got to see her practice “Showgirl” for the first time. It was awesome but the bosses there (I eavesdropped on a conversation with them and Bruce Vilancb and they were telling him she went 4 minutes over. I almost jumped in and said “so the fuck what?” but dammit they cut a song, “Some People’s Lives” when I saw it again
Bette Midler and The Harlettes, Dancers, and Band in Rehearsal
