Better Midler in The Showgirl Must Go On

She’s a tiny woman with a big voice and an even bigger stage presence.

Bette Midler has no problem at all commanding the audience in the 4,296-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace. In The Showgirl Must Go On, she works the 7,000 square feet of performance space with all her usual charisma — so much so that even she admits there are times when “the showgirl must sit down.”

Midler’s prolific career spans more than 40 years, with numerous appearances on stage and in film, including the Broadway musical “Gypsy” in the early 1990s and the movies “The Rose” (1979) and “Beaches” (1988). Her albums “Bette of Rose” (1995) and “Bathhouse Betty” (1998) both went gold, while “Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook” was nominated for a Grammy.

“The Showgirl Must Go On” is different from other Vegas shows. As the Divine Miss M will tell you, her show doesn’t use any French-Canadian circus performers like Cirque du Soleil. Instead there are backup singers, the Staggering Harlots (Jordan Ballard, Kyra DaCosta and Kamilah Marshall) and 20 showgirls, the Caesars Salad girls.

The stage is decorated simply, with a mountain skyline and a drop screen projecting various images set upstage behind Midler’s 13-piece band. Hanging strands resembling beaded curtains mechanically move and shift into various shapes and configurations throughout the show, creating very simple but elegant scenery such as a forest of trees.

Designers Carol Dodds and Michael Levine conjure up some lovely visuals, aided by a massive video screen. For example, Midler sings the touching “Hello In There” amidst multi-layered scrim projections of vintage New York engulfed by fog. The gold coin curtains also become a character in the show, forming objects such as trees, clouds, and rain for several numbers. Costume designer Constance Hoffman has crafted some eye-popping outfits, including reversible clothing that gives the illusion that Midler’s back-up singers — here dubbed the Caesar Salad — clad in black have instantly exploded into bright floral colors.

As Soph, the oldest living showgirl in the world with a pink feather headdress “half the size of Tennessee,” she rattles off a series of scandalous jokes, dirty enough to make even a drunken sailor blush.

But beneath all the showgirl glitz and glamour, the strongest moments in the show come when it is just Midler alone on the stage. Her rendition of “When a Man Loves a Woman” is so powerful it drives the entire audience to its feet. It’s when singing her hits like “The Rose,” “From a Distance” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” that this diva is truly divine.

Show Dates:

Nov. 25 – 26, 28 – 30, 2008
Dec. 2 – 3, 5 – 7, 9 – 10, 30 – 31, 2008
Jan. 2 – 4, 6 – 7, 9 – 11, 13 – 14, 16 – 18, 20 – 21, 23 – 25, 27 – 28, 2009