Bette Midler Still The Divine Diva
Delores Delago
The Classiest Mermaid Now Performing On Stage In Vegas
The trigger event for the Heck of a Guy post now before you was yesterday’s GoodCleanWholesome Fun entry about Bette Midler, which was, in turn, based on a New York Times article about The Divine Miss M’s recently opened show in Vegas, “The Showgirl Must Go On,”1 which is characterized by the paper of record as
Well, I don’t know about you, but that kind of talk tends to discourage me from winging my way to America’s official Sin City so I can pop for one of those $250 seats at the 90 minute show. I mention this because the Times article goes on to laud Ms Midler and nearly every element of her act.
Bette Midler, Flanked By The Current Version Of Harlettes,
In The Showgirl Must Go On
While the review is thus worth reading as an exemplar of the hated the show, loved the performance template, a specialty of the New York Times entertainment section, I admit that the newspaper piece and, indeed, the new show itself are only convenient excuses for today’s Heck of a Guy post, which is simply a celebration of Bette and her best bits.2
Happily all of the classic elements of Bette Midler’s repertoire seem to have found a place in “The Showgirl Must Go On,” including great songs, such as “Do You Want to Dance?,” “From a Distance,” “Hello in There,” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy;” the Sophie Tucker gags; and the latest iteration of the Harlettes.3
Delores Delago With PseudoPolynesian Harlettes
And who else better to perform at such a celebration than my personal favorite of the personae Bette Midler parades across the stage, the motorized-wheelchair-propelled, fishtailed-mermaid-costumed Delores DeLago, The Toast of Chicago - who is, as indicated in the title of this post, also a big hit in at least this precinct of unincorporated McHenry County Illinois.
The Video: Delores Delago Performs - Bette Midler Stars
Now, that’s entertainment.
Bette Midler, Delores Delago, The Harlettes,
and The Mermaids Wave Goodbye
Footnotes
- At 62, Ms Midler is also a dandy addition to both (1) my collection of Great Grownup Entertainers, the most recent induction ceremony of which was the post, Tina Turner At The 2008 Grammys - Still Nice and Rough, and (2) “the list of female singers I want to sleep with even though I know they would hurt me,” which also includes Ms Turner.↩
- Bette would at this point interject a wholesomely nasty joke about her “best bits;” while tempted by the same opportunity, I am turning down that opportunity for the same reasons I would not challenge Mike Tyson to a boxing match or take on Stevie Wonder in a karaoke contest↩
- Bette revels that “The best thing [about the Harlettes] is, not one of them is a French-Canadian circus performer,” a reference The Times feels compelled to explain as an allusion to the otherwise ubiquitous Cirque du Soleil brand in Las Vegas↩
