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Fiery Bette still stoops and conquers
Tina Clarke

Bette Midler delighted her Pine Knob audience Thursday night with an evening of "sleaze beneath the stars."  

Dressed as a bird of paradise, she was the consummate performance - both an exciting songstress and a very able comedian.  

Although this was her first appearance in the Detroit area in a few years, she evidently did her homework, providing the audience with a steady stream of regional jokes.  

Hardly a Detroit suburb went unscathed.  Troy?  "A nice quiet place - you can't even get an envelope to stay open after 9 p.m."  Gross Pointe? "Vogue on the outside, vague on the inside."  

Miss Midler's repertoire and style have changed some in the last few years.  The dazzling sets and extensive costume changes of the past have been pared down to reveal a more candid and spontaneous Midler.  

From one song to the next, the mood changed.  After singing a quietly beautiful James Taylor song, "Millworker," she shifted right into her swinging version of "In The Mood," following it with the torch song from her upcoming film, "The Rose."  

But the old Bette Midler forte remained, combining trashy humor and pathos to give the audience a glimpse of the underside of life.  As always, she forced the audience to respond, whether they laughed or cried.  

A new highlight was the addition of a tall, sensuous male dancer.  Shabodo provided a beautiful counterpoint for Midler during her new Disco Tune, "You Blow Me Away," and took an already fast-moving and frenzied "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" to breakneck speed.  

Bette Midler delivered the "trash with clash" in an offbeat and outrageous way.  Some may have found it tasteless (it wasn't), but one can safely say no one found it forgettable.  

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Bette and her guest star, Dustin Hoffman, share some meaningful, musical moments on 'The Bette Midler Special,' to be presented on Channel 6 Wednesday at 9 p.m.  The two collaborated on original music and lyrics, then join for an offbeat version of a classic piano recital.  

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Bette Midler
Thighs And Whispers

Bette Midler is a woman traveling under false pretenses.  Under that self-consciously raunchy exterior, there beats the heart of a romantic, a sentimental, a nostalgic dreamer.  You can tell in the disparity between the crazy-clothed woman telling dirty jokes, whom she emphasizes on stage, and the contrastingly restrained - yes, even refined - woman who rides the vinyl grooves.  The provocative cover photo of her new album promises a delivery of her trademark trash, but the album removed from the cover sends out track after track of a Nice Person you could take home to mother.

This is some of what you'll find on "Thighs and Whispers" :

"Married Men," released earlier as a disco single. (the Roches trio took on the same subject with a similar subject matter, so don't be confused.) In this one she lapses into a bit of her neo-Sophie Tucker monologue and also lets her voice do some decibel expansion.  Besides being a romantic, Midler has a natural penchant for rock.

A reworking of the Bob Cosby band’s “Big Noise From Winnetka,” which brings a nice new feeling for this 1940’s big band sound, although Lamar Alsop's whistling interpolation is no contest with Bob Haggart’s original. 

“Knight in Black Leather," a satirical comment on the title of the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin," which also uses musical comments on that art-rock piece. "I was  just a pilgrim in the hot pursuit of love, wondering from disco to disco," she sings. This sounds as if it could be pure trash but, except for an obligatory camp spoken portion, Midler sounds as if she actually could be serious about the whole business, and this works for the song's effectiveness rather than to its detriment.

"Cradle Days" gives her the opportunity to do some Motown wailing – and nicely too. 

The bottom line is that this album disappointingly lacks something to snap the listeners to attention