KMB II Review: Radio City Music Hall
Bette right at home in NYC
By: Julia
Saturday, October 16th, 2004

Photo: BaltoBoy Steve Weiner

I cannot explain how comfortable and relaxed Bette was in New York City Saturday night. She glided across the stage never once stuttering through a joke or missing an opportunity to take a jab at Bush. The crowd ate up every second of it. At other concerts she's always been amazing but there was something noticeably different in her. It was as if someone had thrown lighter fluid on that flame inside her.

This was my first time at Radio City Music Hall. I entered alone but met up with my new friends Miss P and Marcia. We took a look at the t-shirt stand and I'm sad to report they are still out of the blue hoodies and have been since Atlantic City. Then I spotted that blonde spiky hair! The three of us discussed how we should introduce ourselves like we were approaching a big time celeb. I must say it was a treat to finally meet the Divine Mister D! Barry was very gracious and understanding of our excitement.

Miss M came on stage around 8:25, the crowd had been restless since 8:15. The uproar from the Mezzanine was outstanding especially when Miss M called them New Jersey and asked them to show her their mullets. I wish I could remember exactly what she said but it went something like this; "Oh New Yorkers! You black wearing, Starbucks drinking, stuck up, think you're better than everyone else muthafuckas!" She paused as the audience went wild from her comment, waited for them to stop, then with conviction said, "MY kind of
people!"

The audience was great until the Rosemary Clooney section. The power of the songs and what Rosemary meant to Bette seemed lost on them.

"When a Man Loves a Woman" brought me to tears. Before she sung the last verse she walked stage right then slowly walked back to the center. She powerfully motioned to the band with her hand an "up, up, up" motion. She grabbed the mic and let her voice go, it was obvious she was passionately letting loose. I felt jumping immediately into "Walk Right In" was too abrupt after such a powerful song.

The only bloopers of the night came during Delores. Bette begins in a bathtub then drops down into her wheelchair and breaks out of the tub racing onto the stage. Only this time the tub didn't break open and two backstage hands had to come and help her. Like a true pro Bette kept singing as she struggled with the door for at least 20 seconds. As the number continued you could tell the issue was cracking her up and she randomly laughed and sang at the same time. At one point the Harlettes fan her face with their fins and she swatted them all away saying, "common girls gimmie a break!" As she ripped off her Phantom of the Opera mask the blue poof on her head came down in front of her eyes. The Harlettes screamed, as they are supposed to, then laughed uncontrollably on the floor at the sight of Bette. Bette sat there frozen for a few seconds obviously amused.

As the Mister Rogers screen played the audience roared with an expectation that Bette would be making more jokes. They where pleasantly surprised by her sweet duet, responding with an appreciation to her comment about needing a new perspective.

"From A Distance," "Do You Want to Dance," "Wind Beneath My Wings," and "The Rose" where all met with excited cheers and ended with standing ovations. "Wind Beneath My Wings" was especially powerful as she said, "I love to sing this song to New York crowds, it just means more here." Normally after she finishes the song the band plays
another verse as she shakes hands of first row members and blows kisses to the rest of us. This time when she finished her walk she motioned to the band and sung the entire last verse again with more passion.

As she ended WBMW the Harlettes came on stage in new colorful dresses. Bette did not leave to change for "Keep on Rockin" as it has been dropped from the show. Instead she stayed in her rose vines dress and told the audience to sing along with her next song. We where a little too slow for her and she kept motioning for us to speed up. Eventually
she sat down on the stage and joined us, at the correct tempo. She slowly bent down as she sang, "Far beneath the bitter snow" then took a dramatic pause. A gentleman in the orchestra took that pause to yell, "WE LOVE YOU BETTE!" The crowd rose to its feet making a huge applause as Bette sunk into a ball on the stage. I think she was half
laughing at the mans audacity and half crying at the power of the moment she was in. The audience remained standing but quiet as Bette looked up and sang the last words. She waved and exited through the door but the crowd wasn't having that.

They cheered and screamed for her to come back! It was truly amazing. The time passed during which you would expect the lights to come up if the show was going to end there. The crowd got louder as they realized this. After a short delay Bette returned on stage to applause I just can't describe. "Alright, we where going to run off and leave you but
you've been so good we're going to sing a song that is highly under rehearsed." She told us to sit down and chatted about how we had broken the Saturday night curse, that playing Saturday in NYC is MURDER! She sang the first part of "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the
Evening" alone and was joined by the Harlettes who came on stage dancing. They ended sitting on Bette Sussman's Piano platform, Bette sitting right on top of the Piano.

It was Simply an amazing concert. Bette really works her behind off to make you forget about everything else but her. You can't help but get lost. This was truly the best last-second trip I've ever taken. I also have to say it was DIVINE meeting Mister D, I highly recommend it. I think it's time to start a Mister D fan club ;-)

Reporting safely home again! Julia

KMB Review:
RCMH 10/16
The Divine Debbie

Photo: BaltoBoy Steve Weiner

Radio City Music Hall, Saturday night, Bette Midler live, can't think of a better place to be on a Saturday night!

Bette was off and running on Saturday night. She made mention of breaking the Saturday night jinx in NYC! And break it she did! In spite of a few technical difficulties - Delores getting stuck in her tub, her hat falling in her eyes which brought on some uncontrollable giggling from the girls and then from Bette and a few extra notes thrown in from the band during a a Soph joke causing a brief loss of thought. She later needlessly apologized for the technical problems and thank everyone for being such a wonderful audience.

Before starting Wind Beneath My Wings Bette talked about how New York gets the song more than anyone else. At the end of WBMW she left for her last outfit change but instead came back out and sang more. After that the audience started asking for The Rose. She said she would sing anything for us. The Rose was the standard sing along with this audience being stronger than Thursday night's. She left the stage after The Rose. Everyone was on their feet until she came back out and told us all to sit down. She told us that they were just going to run away after The Rose but then changed their minds (or hers). Even though they were under rehearsed (we all know what a perfectionist she is) she explained that they would sing another Rosemary Clooney song - In the Cool, Cool of the Evening. Under rehearsed or not, it was fabulous.

I asked the woman sitting next to me if she had ever seen Bette live. Her response was once when she was first starting out and she didn't think that she would ever make it because she was too vulgar!!

Saturday night was another night of Bette on stage giving her all and then some. Bette is always gracious and very appreciative of her audiences.

The security at the stage door was much tighter on Saturday evening including more RCMH security and a couple of NYPD. They didn't waste any time getting Bette in the car and out of there.

Thank you Bette for a fabulous evening.