I’ve never seen Bette Midler live. I had tickets maybe ten years ago and another concert came up and I gave them to my niece and she loved it. Raved and raved. But I never got around to seeing her again, and so when I heard she was playing Madison Square Garden June 25 (a Thursday), I figured suck it up cupcake, and I got a ticket.
Midler is getting up there but she is still some show person and her new album It’s The Girls, while not perfect, is perky and fun, and here and there pretty damn awesome. Otherwise we know what to expect, a one woman Andrews Sisters about a bugle boy or two, with a splash of Barbra when you’re not expecting it. “Wings Beneath My Feet”, “The Rose” … the drill you know.
All aces in my book –Midler is an entertaining all round tough mama. Remember her in “Ruthless People”? No? How about the Simpsons? Seinfeld (one of their funniest episodes, where Kramer becomes her gofer). Either way, that’s what we think of her. From New York’s gay bathhouses with Barry Manilow to the apex of pop and the soundtrack to “Beaches” to singing farewell to Johnny Carson, she is like an even more blue collar Barbra Streisand.
Like Cher, but with maybe even better reason, Bette is a gay icon. The homosexual culture discovered, nurtured and then set her free. The costumes, the wigs, the uber feminine loudness, are part of a gay culture, and she has been grown it and maintained it.Midler puts on a show.
So yeah, June is a long way off but I can’t wait for her to be my baby one more time. Bette at MSG? A must see.
