Bette Midler Arrives at Caesars Palace
Bette Midler kicked off her two-year run last night with the first of (at least) 200 shows at the Caesars Palace Colosseum.
“The Showgirl Must Go On” features mermaids in wheelchairs (seriously!), Midler’s well-known cheeky humor, and performances of some of her classics like “The Rose,” “From A Distance” and “Wind Beneath My Wings,” as well as an unexpected cover of John Prine’s “Hello In There.”
When Midler reinvented cabaret for rock audiences in the early 1970s, it seemed as though her 1976 stint at Caesars Palace would be the first of many. Instead it was Barry Manilow, her one-time musical director, who embraced Las Vegas while Midler stuck to concert tours and a movie career.
The singer filmed her 1997 HBO special “Diva Las Vegas” at the MGM Grand, and returned to ring in 2000 with a New Year’s show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. She began talking to AEG Live, the producers who operate the Colosseum, after her “Kiss My Brass” tour wound down in Australia in 2005.
“I wanted to see what it was like to have a show you didn’t have to pack up and move, whether it be a prettier show or a more extravagant show,” Midler said last spring.
Last night’s first show included several celebrities in the audience, including Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Alan Thicke, Lionel Ritchie, Taye Diggs, Jennifer Coolidge, Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance, Kathy Najimy and Ricki Lake, as well as other Las Vegas-based performers Siegfried & Roy, George Wallace, Gladys Knight, Rita Rudner and Toni Braxton.
[LVRJ]
The Colosseum at Caesars Palace
3570 Las Vegas Blvd South
1-877-723-8836
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3 opinions for Bette Midler Arrives at Caesars Palace
Alicia
Feb 22, 2008 at 6:25 am
I love Bette Midler!!! I’m so glad she has taken over, and wish her a great run. The Divine Miss M indeed!!
ANTHONY V JR
Feb 27, 2008 at 12:01 am
I dont think Bette will be a great success.at least not as great at my queen CELINE.
Cher at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace
May 6, 2008 at 2:26 pm
[…] Palace at 7:30 tonight. She snagged herself a three-year, 200 show run that will alternate with Bette Midler’s own 2-year, 200 show engagement, and Elton John whose show is up for renewal this […]
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