Susan Wloszczyna: USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Elizabeth Dole may have put a lid on her presidential campaign. 

But another hopeful is ready to dive right in. 

Bette Midler's 32-city Divine Miss Millennium tour ( out of four) turned D.C. into Diva Central for 2½ hours Thursday night as her mermaid-on-wheels alter ego, Delores DeLago, declared her intention to run - despite being leg-deprived. 

Delores, one of many time-tested bits that Midler has hauled out for her first road show in four years, baited special-interest groups with renditions of Conga and Hava Nagila. She confessed her unrequited passion for "Kenneth Starfish" ("I would even let you debone me," she moaned).

And in typical demented fashion, she and her fishtail-flinging trio of "spin doctors" (the latest edition of the Harlettes) put on a fundraising telethon that ended with the Titanic theme My Heart Will Go On, which gets the dippy dunking it deserves. If thunderclaps of applause and shouts of adoration were votes, this tacky-chic chick of the sea would be a shoo-in.

The 53-year-old Midler, a whirlwind of fabulosity even if she's looking more like the Divine Miss Matron these days, delivered her usual show-biz grab bag of lounge act, burlesque, Broadway and loopy luau (she's from Hawaii, you recall). 

Sob ballads including such must-hears as The Rose and Wind Beneath My Wings alternated with boob jokes in this traveling farewell to the past 1,000 years. It hits New York City Monday and Tuesday. 

While terrific as a chanteuse (though high notes occasionally eluded her vocal grasp), this pro is better as a stand-up. Even when she flubbed, the Divine One scored.

Losing her place in mid-banter, Bette brayed: "I wish I had a TelePrompTer like those other (rhymes with witches). Cher says 'Hello,' and she has a TelePrompTer."

Midler came out swinging at a Viagra-shilling Bob Dole ("That's why his wife is running for president. She's trying to get out of the house!"), the overexposed Ricky Martin ("I'm counting the minutes until his Behind the Music special) and airport detainee Diana Ross ("Personally, I like a nice patdown by a security guard").

There were the rare missteps. Did we really need to see her dopey tango with a couple of giant marijuana cigarettes? 

But as the concert wound down, a different Midler emerged beyond the bawdy belter - sophisticated, mature and capable of intimacy even in an echo-plagued hockey arena. When she gently crooned One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) to the worshipful graying Boogie Woogie Bugle boys and girls, it was a millennium-worthy moment of magic.


Randy Cohen: Rock Publication
Watch out Silicon Valley . . . Bette Midler is here. With playful remarks of the very rich software tycoons buying up the front rows seats and making more money than all her movies had mad, Bette Midler has the mouth that roars. And she's always ready to devour anything and anybody in her path.  

A Bette Midler concert is like a night at a roadhouse sipping martinis while the roof is on fire. It's hot, bawdy and you stumble toward the parking lot tipsy from the head rush. There's nothing understated about the Divine Miss M, and we wouldn't have it any other way. It helps when you have 12,000 enthusiastic fans pulling for you, as was the case at the San Jose Arena Saturday night, where Midler and a cast of seemingly thousands decamped on her Divine Miss Millennium Tour. The Divine Miss Millennium Tour will wind up on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. It should be illegal to have so much fun while working - the smile never left Midler's face . 

Rising from an Earth-shaped orb behind a star-studded diorama, Midler opened the nearly three-hour show with From A Distance, quickly reassuring the crowd there would be plenty of familiar material mixed in with her patented camp. Not that they needed reassuring; she could have sung jingles all night, and this crowd wouldn't have budged. Midler brought a small village with her, including seven musicians, seven dancers and her three backup singers, the Harlettes. Midler also did a woozy turn in a dive-of-the-mind, The Pits, and a big, risque number celebrating bosoms and brassieres with every mammary euphemism known to humanity. Some of this double entendre-laced material, shall we say, sagged a bit. But Midler radiated so much charisma and had such fun glorying in and mocking her taste for tac ("We may be high-tech, but we're still low-down") it didn't matter. She also could magically shift moods in a blink, from arch raunchiness (lots of jests at Bob Dole and Viagra) to glowing sincerity. 

The songs came fast and furiously -- Do You Want to Dance, I'm Beautiful, You Make me Feel (Mighty Real), Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy -- punctuated by Midler's bawdy banter. One of the few lines we can print: "Unlike the San Jose Sharks, I still know how to score." And score she did, delivering a piñata of a package with the best bits from a 30-year career. There was Sophie, the wise-cracking gossip; the snappy chanteuse from the Manhattan baths; and, of course, mermaid Delores Delago, who opened the second half with a campaign for president that included a love song to Ken Starfish. There was even a bit of serious lecturing, as Midler warned the crowd not to let San Jose become another Los Angeles with its rampant growth. In between the songs, she performed a mile-a-minute comedy revue, telling risqué jokes, tossing off more four-letter words than one hears at a Korn concert. And taking potshots at celebrities, including Cher, former presidential candidate and current Viagra spokesman Bob Dole ("Sometimes, once is plenty") and Ricky Martin, many of whom joined her, in caricature form at least, for a rousing "We Are the World And there was music -- some in snippets, some in a roof-raising roar. 

The Rose, Otto Titzling, In the latter vein, Midler sang Leonard Cohen's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" with keen feeling, and shaped a tender version of the sentimental "Sunrise, Sunset" from "Fiddler on the Roof." (Midler was in the original Broadway cast.) even a blissfully bizarre tune called Marijuana, during which Midler feigned hallucinations as she danced with two "Doobie Brothers." They, like most of the production values here, were more suited to Broadway than your typical concert: trapdoors, descending banners, a myriad of costume changes. 

The fiftysomething Midler also commented and joked, on occasion, about the challenges of being middle-aged in a youth-oriented culture. Strip away the glitter, though, and you're left with one simple fact. Despite the strains of the altitude, (which she mentioned often,) Midler's voice sounds stronger and clearer than ever. 


Carol Cling: Review-Journal 
At the end of this month, Bette Midler's newest movie opens. Its title, "Isn't She Great," refers to the role she plays, best-selling novelist Jacqueline Susann. 

But the title applies equally well to Midler herself. And the "Divine Miss Millennium" may be her greatest role yet. 

Wrapping up a 34-city tour with a two-day Las Vegas finale, Midler lit up the Mandalay Bay Events Center in a 2 1/2-hour extravaganza that mixed sass and sentiment, raunch and reflection with equal fervor Friday. 

Whether it's the 20th or 21st century, it's tough to imagine a more fiendishly versatile or wickedly winning performer. 

Starting out on top of the world -- emerging from a giant half-globe -- singing "From a Distance" with motherly warmth, Midler guided a spellbinding musical, comedic and, yes, even philosophical odyssey that delivered on the proverbial promise of something for everyone. 

That is, everyone who doesn't mind liberal doses of defiantly trashy humor worthy of Mae West working without a censor -- or a net. 

Midler certainly knows her way around a dirty joke -- or two dozen -- and shamelessly demonstrated her mastery of the form. 

"Just when you thought I couldn't sink any lower, I go the distance!" Midler gleefully crowed at one point. 

And there were so many ways to go. Poking fun at Bob Dole's Viagra commercials, for example. (Why, oh why, Midler wonders, didn't he choose to endorse Motel 6 or Grecian Formula instead?) Or an unforgettable visit to Club Pits, home of dignified musical tributes to the creator of the brassiere and to "Marahuana," the latter a vintage ditty from the "reefer madness" era. 

Club Pits also provided an ideal opportunity for Midler to trot out one of her recurring alter egos: Soph, the raunchiest gal around. And oh, how she does get around. 

So, in an entirely different way, does Delores DeLago, the wheelchair-riding mermaid who decides to protest the dismal state of politics by running for president, a campaign that ultimately earns her the support of a veritable who's who of giant puppet celebrities. Among them: divas such as cross-Strip rival Barbra Streisand and demagogues from Ross Perot to Fidel Castro. 

These and other elaborate sequences -- enlivened by Midler's indefatigable backup trio, the Harlettes, and six spirited dancers -- sparked the "Divine Miss Millennium" show with enough energy to power the Strip if those dreaded Y2K power outages hit later than expected. 

Indeed, at times the show seemed to require immense energy, what with its own glittering silver curtain, shifting backdrops, fireworks and even an exploding volcano -- not as fiery as The Mirage's, but a lot livelier. 

"We have spared no expense. Look at all this crap," she quipped. "I could launch a (space) shuttle with what I have up here." 

Entertaining as they were, however, Midler hardly needed high-tech trappings to command the stage. Even when she stood solo in the spotlight belting a gut-busting "Stay With Me Baby" or crooning a bittersweet "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," Midler delivered with throwaway ease. 

She also has the magical knack of being able to transform an arena into an intimate cabaret. Those who were there realized it was the site of a New Year's party that was truly one in a millennium. 


Sally Ann Cruikshank: Athenaeum Staff
She is known to the world as “The Divine Miss M” and with her latest tour of the U.S., Bette Midler certainly lives up to her name. 

With a three hour concert covering everything from politics and comedy to celebrities and stardom, along with absolutely tear-wrenching songs, The Divine Miss Millennium Tour is definitely worth the price of admission. 

As my best friend and I entered the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, we quickly realized that we were two of ten people in the audience under the age of forty. Age didn’t seem to matter much, though, once the concert started. 

Midler opened with one of her bigger timeless hits, “From a Distance,” entering the stage by rising up from a huge globe. The pace turned upbeat as Midler suddenly broke into “I’m Beautiful” halfway through the first song, and the globe broke apart to reveal lovely costumed dancers. 

The dancers included Midler’s three “Harlettes,” who served as her backup singers throughout the concert. A nice change from most concerts and performances was the size of Midler’s dancing girls, which ranged from sizes 4 to 34, opposed to the usual use of stick-thin background dancers. 

Midler and her dancers also performed several skits along with the songs, including the popular skit, “Otto Titsling,” from Midler’s performance in the movie Beaches. This was performed along with another group of songs Midler referred to as “Club Pits,” her collection of “absolutely tasteless songs.” As Midler bounced from one side of the stage to another with amazing energy, the entire nearly-sold-out crowd laughed and sang along with the racy selections. 

Midler herself is quite the firecracker. With one of the greatest stage presences I have ever seen, Midler managed to shock the audience on more than a few occasions. By making rather humorous comments about other stars and personalities such as Barbara Streisand, Ken Starr and Ricky Martin, Midler evoked more than one gasp of surprise from the audience. 

Even the tremendous costumes, fantastic props and incredible wit couldn’t overshadow the real reason Midler was so fabulous. Midler’s unparalleled voice gave me chills the whole concert. When she finished singing her most popular hits “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “The Rose,” I don’t believe there was a dry eye in the entire arena. 

Once when making a comment on Diana Ross being arrested for assaulting a police officer, Midler stated, “That’s why she’s Diana, and I am Divine.” Well, Miss M, I couldn’t have said it better myself.