Bette Midler In The Rose
Can "The Divine Miss M" Beat Streisand At Her Own Game?
Rona Barrette

Special thanks to Sammy Miro for sharing this article


Any resemblance between Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler is purely coincidental.  Sure, Bette and Barbra are both Jewish, have frizzy, reddish hair, crooked noses and sing pop music, but when it comes to stylistic differences, they exist in separate worlds, as any Bette Midler fan will tell you.  After seeing Bette perform in person, one could hardly ever mistake her for Barbra again.  Superstar Streisand is self-assured, cautious, click; Bette Midler is self-deprecating, daring, campy.  Whether she’s singing a disco tune or a ballad, Barbra Streisand almost always sounds the same whereas Bette Midler slips into a wide range of vocal characters as easily as she changes into her outrageous costumes.  Streisand sometimes takes herself too seriously; Midler never will. 

Bette, however, can play serious as is evident in her film debut, The Rose. “I like what I did in the film,” says the 5-foot-1 songstress.  “Everybody expected me to do a comedy the first time out, but I wanted to do something unexpected.  This is not a happy film, but it does have a wide range (of emotions) in it.  Next time, I want to do something that it just the opposite – maybe a slapstick comedy.” 

The progression from singing to acting seems a natural progressing for buxom Bette Midler.  She has, in fact, been acting as part of her concert performances since those days at the Continental Baths in New York when she played to mostly gay men wrapped only in towels.  The stage persons Bette developed was a glittery, gusty broad – “the last of the trashy ladies” – the Divine Ms. M, a character she emphasizes is totally divorced from her own slightly bizarre self.  Through Ms. M, Bette gained a reputation for herself as an unstoppable showstopper and graduated to bigger halls while her homosexual following expanded to encompass heteros – and anything else in between.  

Bette’s own taste in men is strictly straight and, until recently, her career was managed by her former lover, Aaron Russo.  However, it now appears that the Russo-Midler relationship is over, both personally and professionally.  “What can I say?” Bette asks rhetorically.  “It just wasn’t working out.”  They certainly gave it the old college try, though, for some seven years. 

On her own, Bette is far removed from the love-starved, self-destructive character she portrays in The Rose, a thinly disguised biography of blues-rocker Janis Joplin who died of a drug overdose in 1970. 

However, Midler is infatuated enough with the character to contemplate making The Rose a live stage show.  “If the picture goes well,” muses Midler, “I’d like to take The Rose out for a year on the road.  I’d like to be that character on stage.  This tour (her current one) may be my last gasp for a while at the wide range kind of show.  Next summer, I’d take make two hours out and have one of those hours be a straight-ahead rock show.”  Rock and roll is not a music form that is foreign to Bette, though it is certainly with middle-of-the road pop that she is more closely associated.  Her biggest hit to date is still “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” with “In The Mood” perhaps a close second.  Those songs are, of course, revivals of Forties’ hits and clear examples of Bette’s mixture of respect and spoofery of nostalgia.  The recent past – the Sixties – is also an era with which Bette is infatuated and her Harlettes – the ever-changing line-up of three girls who sing behind her - do a dead-on, right-on, take-off of that decade’s girl groups.  Bette reveals in doing an exaggerated version of “Leader of the Pack.” 

Bette would love to lead the pack of female singers and after only one film, her publicity already boasts that she is the second highest paid female movie star in the world; Streisand is first.  Similarities are evident between Streisand’s A Star Is Born and Midler’s The Rose. Both deal with superstars struggling to survive.  Both co-star bearded leading men – Kris Kirstofferson in A Star, Alan Bates in Rose.  Both films purport to give behind-the-scene accounts of the recording industry and both have lavishly staged concert sequences.  

However, the differences between The Roes and A Star Is Born are probably greater than the similarities.  Through Bette and Barbra are both singers and the focal points of their respective films, Midler plays a destructive star while Streisand is a survivor.  Although Kris plays a performer and Streisand’s lover in Star, Rose co-star Alan Bates is merely Bette’s manager; Fredric Forrest is her lover.  Barbra’s and Midler’s pictures are both set in the rock arena, though Bette is the more convincing of the two as a singer in this category.  In The Rose, Bette does a blistering, soulful version of “Stay With Me, Baby” that Streisand wouldn’t dare attempt. 

For both her film and concert performances, Bette draws from a wide range of entertainers.  “I try to see as many people as I can,” she says.  “I enjoy something in almost everybody.  They don’t have to do a whole lot to please me – just look like they are having a good time.  I can’t be bothered with performers who just look like they are walking through the show. 

“I also get irritated with people who just don’t have any idea of what to do on stage.  They just get up and sing their hits.  I’ve always been attracted to those performers who try to transport their audience, really touch them on some deep emotional level.” 

A vivid childhood memory for Midler is of the first time she was moved by a performer.  “It was when I saw Edith Piaf on television.” she recalls. “I was very young and we just had this black and white set.  She was on The Ed Sullivan Show, just standing there in this crappy little sweater and tight little skirt.  I didn’t even know what she was singing about – it was in French.  But there was something magical about her.  I never forgot that.  After that, I was drawn to magazine articles about the legendary performers of the theatre – the Barrymores and so forth – who could take an audience and transport them anywhere.  It has happened to me a few times. 

“Janis Joplin did it to me.  She could make you laugh and cry.  Tina Turner did it for me.  I was drawn to her because she was so energetic.  Mick Jagger did it, too.  I saw the Stones in 1972 and it was an absolutely magical evening.  Those are the nights ever performer works for.  It can’t happen every time you go on stage, but you can try to get as close as you can.  That’s the challenge that keeps you going.” 

A lady always looking for challenges, Bette, rather than relying on the safety of a set format, will take chances with each of her new stage shows.  As she demonstrated in her 1977 TV special, Bette is adept at slipping into characters and she brings a host of them to her concerts.  Vocally, Bette handles everything from the rapid-fire disco beat of “Married Man” from her new album, Thighs And Whispers, to the searing solemnity of “Drinking Again” from her first LP [oh come on Rona, it was the second].  Almost as entertaining as Bette’s music is her between-song quips and monologues, including the retelling of those risqué Sophie Tucker jokes which Midler delights in.  The many moods and colours of Bette Midler are encompassed by her energetic performance and she works hard to spread herself around – artistically. 

 “It’s always been important to me to be able to cover a wide range of emotions on stage,” states Bette. “That’s always been my idea of what a show should be.  Besides, I’m a little on the schizy side.  I think I must have a chemical imbalance or something.  All I know is I tend to go as fast as lightning from one mood to another.  So, I have to have a wide variety in my show to accommodate those mood changes when they come up. 

“I mean if I know I’ll have a point in the show where I can be sad, I can save up my sadness for just that one moment and all my anger for another moment . . . I like that.  I look forward to being able to change.” 

Thus far, the many changes Bette, 33, has been through have been successful.  Her Clams on the Half Shell Revue on Broadway set attendance records and her concerts have become must-see events.  It there has been a weak spot in her career, it has been the lack of consistency in her records, but she is hopeful that Thighs and Whispers will change that.  Having tackled Broadway, records and concerts, Bette now wants to make her mark on celluloid.  She would like her characterization of the gaudily-dressed, overly-make up “Rose” to lead to other demanding – but different – roles.  On the road, which will always be part of Bette’s career, she plans to remain adventurous and dreams now of doing something totally removed from her past performances. 

“Maybe one of these days I’ll just sing the blues,” she thinks out loud.  “I’d like to try sometime, but I’m not sure the crowd would like it.  Audiences don’t pay $17.50 just to see a small, full-breasted blonde girl sing the blues.” 

Don’t bet on it, Bette!

Dy-no-mite!  That’s the only word to describe Bette Midler’s debut film performance in The Rose.  The story takes place during a time of dramatic changes in our country – the Sixties – and makes splendid use of the authentic music of the day.

Probably the most visible and effective spokesmen of that era of love beads and anti-war protests were the rock singers like Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others.  Bette’s character in The Rose is a composite of many famous singers of those turbulent times.

Frederic Forrest, so impressive in Apocalypse Now, has a change of page role as Rose’s boyfriend, Dyer, an Army deserter who lands job of driving the rock star.  Texas-born Forrest showed potential in debut flick, When The Legends Die.

Alan Bates knocked ladies over with this Oscar-nominated role in An Unmarried Woman. He plays Bette’s manager, Rudge, in The Rose, his first opportunity to work in Hollywood.  Other credits include The Fixer and Women In Love.

Although longtime manager/mentor Aaron Russo is no longer guiding Bette’s career, he served as one of the film’s producers.  It was a friendly split.  Bette calls the shots now!

Rose remains lonely & confused despite her rise to top of the music pile.  A lady of many talents, Rose looks for happiness in a string of affairs.  Rudge has big ambitions.

Though he’s since acted in numerous off B’way plays & little theatre groups in L.A., Frederic once said, “I never had the drive to be on the stage.  That wasn’t within my experience as a child.  In Waxahachie (Tex.) we had movies – I wanted to be a screen actor.”

Hawaii-born Bette has not abandoned the musical stage for a career in films, exclusively.  In fact, after wrapping The Rose, an inspired Ms. Midler toured the country to sell-out concert crowds.

Everyone connected with The Rose is expecting comparisons between the character of Rose and the late Janis Joplin.  Both have similar approaches to live performances – electric, moving.

Bette has always been an entertaining performer on stage.  “It’s always been important to me to be able to cover a wide range of emotions,” she states.

In The Rose, Frederic Forrest is Bette’s lover while Alan Bates portrays the Janis Joplin figure’s manager.

Though she’d love to sing blues, “audiences don’t pay to see a small, full-breasted girls sing the blues.”  No?

Her long time association with Aaron Russo, Bette’s manager and ex-boyfriend, is over.  “It just wasn’t working out,” she explains.  Of late she’s been dating actor Peter Riegert, Tim Matheson’s roommate in highly successful Animal House.

Bette’s come a long way from this Grammy award scene with Karen and Richard Carpenter.  Excited about films, she “looks forward to change.”