Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On (2010)
Filled with plenty of girls and gags and an enchanting repertoire of her greatest hits, The Showgirl Must Go On was a concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas that starred pop diva Bette Midler. Showgirl premiered on February 20, 2008 and closed on January 31, 2010. Midler signed for 300 shows from 2008 to 2010 at a pace of 100 performances a year. Shows were presented five nights a week with the house dark on Mondays and Thursdays. On December 31, 2010, The Showgirl Must Go On was broadcast on HBO channels at 9 pm. The 70 minute special contained some of the performances from the 2 hour long show.
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Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
I'm watching this show for maybe the third time, hoping with each viewing I will enjoy it more than the previous times.I'm as much of a fan of Ms. Midler as anyone else and would go to the ends of the earth to watch her live. However, this particular concert recording is missing much of the energy Ms. M usually brings to her performances. It seems as though she is tired and simply walking through the show to get through the night.The hits are there....as is her old fashioned lovable tackiness. But the fun and tawdriness is missing.But yet...I'm watching it again. That's how endearing she is. It's still Bette.
Almost 20 minutes of the show is missing. Her entire sequence with her mermaid character is missing. I saw this show in Vegas at The Caesars Palace Coliseum: Bette (and all the "Caesar Salad" girls) are in motorized "Larks" (kind of a "sporty" wheelchair, if you are not familiar with it) and do a full-blown mermaid Broadway musical review in full skin-tight fish tail costumes. All singing and dancing. It is both amazing and hilarious. Well, it "ain't" on this disk! No-siree! We are treated to other flaws of the performance instead: 1. The entire overly-long opening sequence complete with a donkey, reprising the Wizard of Oz" tornado. (Bette blows in from Kansas) 2. Bette swearing like a sailor and her inane monologue. Too short of a performance. The original show was about 95 minutes and had a "planned" encore. It seems like other parts are missing as well (?).
At first, I was not going to give this a decent review. Bette Midler lands in Vegas as if she is Dorothy coming out of Kansas.She struts along on the stage, and while quite voluptuous and vulgar at times, she sure can still belt out some of her old favorites.She claims that 30 years ago her audience was on drugs and now they're on medication. Highlights of the show, the best thing about it, is where Ms. Midler sings "Oy, it's hot in here, while reciting some of her classic joke lines.All being said, Ms. Midler still has the voice and chutzpah to perform. She is her vintage self and the show turns into one huge delight.