Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie Review

Still Divine, Still Miss M.

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 31, 2011

Before she collapsed from an overdose in The Rose, turned the tables on her kidnappers in Ruthless People, got even with her ex in The First Wives Club and sold all those Beaches albums, she was first and foremost the Divine Miss M., who perfected her act belting tunes and cracking X-rated jokes to the patrons of gay bathhouses. But the lady could sing, and when someone finally wised up and put her on vinyl (still vinyl; it was 1972), her multi-tracked rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", with that incomparable voice covering for all three Andrews Sisters, topped the charts. Thirty-six years later, the stage may be bigger -- they don't come much bigger than the The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas -- the sequins are more plentiful, the backing orchestra is certainly more polished, the accompanying dancers (a trio of Staggering Harletts and an even larger retinue of Caesar Salad Girls) are far more coordinated, but the essential Bette Midler is unchanged. "Salty songs and dirty jokes put my daughter through private school!" she tells the crowd. "I've been telling these jokes for forty years . . . and you've been laughing at 'em for forty years" -- for which the People's Diva gives her sincere thanks.

Midler's show is a canny assembly of popular standards with some minor additions. The selections are interspersed with classic Bette patter and spiced with enough Vegas production pizzazz to cover the costume changes and give the 60-something firecracker a chance to recharge and reload. True to form, Midler makes her advancing years (and those of her fans) the butt of her own jokes. "Thirty years ago my audiences were on drugs", she says. "Now they're on medication." During a number late in the show, she reclines on the stage in mock exhaustion, claiming to be too tired to continue. (Yeah, that could happen before an adoring audience of thousands.)

As is often the case with "tribute" or retrospective shows, I suspect one's enjoyment of Showgirl may depend, in part, on familiarity with the originals that are being recreated, because memory overlays the current performance with recollections of the initial one and the emotions it evoked. Midler effectively acknowledges this when she performs "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" in an overproduced version surrounded by Harletts and Salad Girls, while behind her is projected a vintage video of her younger self as three different characters performing the three-part harmony simultaneously, just like on the original recording. Whatever may have happened in Vegas, that's the version long-time fans will hear in their heads.

Still, the voice delivers, and Midler's rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings", which she saves till last, demonstrates that she can still bring the heart-felt schmaltz that has kept her fan base broad and loyal all these years. (Confession: I've never cared for either the song or the movie, Beaches, that spawned it, but I do understand their popularity.) That same emotional appeal -- direct, yearning, unadorned, and a lot harder to pull off than it sounds -- can be heard in her renditions of "The Rose" and "From a Distance". It's a Midler trademark as much as the dirty mouth and the scandalous jokes (not so much these days), and it's the real secret to her longevity.

The complete song list is as follows:

• The Showgirl Must Go On
• Friends
• The Rose
• Do You Wanna Dance
• Boolya JaDa
• Hello in There
• Pretty Legs/Hot in Here
• The Glory of Love
• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
• Wind Beneath My Wings

Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Image's 1080i, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has been taken from high-definition video, with the exception of the opening mini-film projected on a giant screen behind the stage at the start of the show. As one would expect with HD-originated material, the source is clean, sharp and detailed with almost no video noise, except in an occasional long shot, where the play of light off the numerous sequins seems to trip up the interlacing. The latter problem is occasional and minor. Blacks surrounding the performers are solid and deep in close and medium shots, but exhibit minor crushing in longer shots; this is probably unavoidable, given the sensitivity of HD cameras and the multiple reflections in an auditorium the size of the Colosseum, so that the dark is never completely dark. This being a video-sourced Blu-ray, there were none of the issues sometimes encountered in film transfers, such as ringing or high-frequency filtering, nor did I observe any compression errors.

Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS lossless track favors the orchestra, which it delivers with punch and presence. It also immerses you in the crowd's applause and laughter, which wraps around the sides. Comedic patter and Midler's solos are beautifully rendered, but the 5.1 mix struck me as being slightly reticent with the vocals on some songs, especially when it came to balancing Midler, the orchestra and the chorus. Just for comparison, I replayed a few numbers with the PCM 2.0 track, which seemed to have better balance. Of course, one could probably also nudge the center channel up slightly when playing the DTS-HD MA track. In any case, both soundtracks almost certainly have superior tonality to, and fewer rough edges than, the live performance, thanks to the efforts of sound engineers.

Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None.

Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

During one of the breaks between songs, Midler describes how she invented her infamous alter ego, Soph, through whose shameless lips the performer could tell the trashiest jokes she could think of. Midler was 30 at the time; so she imagined someone much, much older -- say, 60! At which point, the People's Diva blanches and turns her head away in shame. Midler may have attained Soph's age, but she's far exceeded her creation. Anyone who's still willing, after all these years, to get out on that massive stage, pour her heart into those songs night after night with such conviction, and even display the comparison with her younger self for all the world to see is a class act of rare conviction. Even if she does claim to cruise nursing homes looking for dates.