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Bette Midler: Back On Broadway

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 14:38 PST, Jan 21, 2016

Bette Midler is a lady who is full of class, style, and grace. She has entertained for decades as both a singer and an actress. USA Today reports that now Midler is returning to the stage in the Michael Stewart/Jerry Herman production Hello, Dolly!. Herman said Bette Midler was the only one who could play the part of Dolly in the 21st century.

“Many times through the years I’ve been asked about bringing back Hello, Dolly! – and it has always been, ‘Who would be my dream Dolly?’ – and though I’ve had literally dozens of names tossed at me, I knew that we needed more than just a wonderful singer or a wonderful actor, so I held on to the hope that she would also be a distinctly original persona. Who is out there that has the necessary stature, warmth, the incredible talent and ability, and especially the singular, outsized personality that I was looking for in a 21st Century Dolly? Only one person: Bette Midler.”

As for Bette Midler, People reports that she confirmed she will be in the production in a tweet.

This will be Bette Midler’s first time on Broadway since she starred in the one-woman production I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers.

However, Broadway isn’t all that Bette Midler is up to these days. Gay Times Magazine reports that Midler will also star as Mae West in a biopic about the actress’s life that will be featured on HBO.

In 2014, Bette Midler spoke of the story of Mae West.

“That’s a great story, because she was such an interesting character and lived such a curious life. It started when she was just six-years-old, she was a real showbiz prodigy, in a way. She completely invented herself and was very, very proud of what she’d done. She never changed gears. She wrote her own material and she really let women have a sex life that they hadn’t had. Nobody knew they were interested in it before her. So God bless that.”

Check out the very best of Mae West.

If all of this isn’t enough, Yahoo! Style reports that Bette Midler is also the new face of Marc Jacobs. Jacobs announced the news on Instagram last week.

In his post, he credits Midler for playing a large part in his love of fashion.

“To this day, I still credit Bette Midler (unbeknownst to her) with a large part of my foray into fashion design. At age ten when I discovered the image drawn by Richard Amsel for her album cover, I was so instantly enamored by the silhouetted Bette in a black dress wearing platform sandals with a wedge of red curly hair that I recreated it on the back of a jean jacket with acrylic paint and embroidery floss and proudly wore it to school.”

And with all this going on, Bette Midler still finds time to get together with friends, although with Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn as friends, who wouldn’t? Daily Mail reported that the cast of the 1996 comedy First Wives Club got together to welcome Keaton into her 70s.

Forward reports that Bette Midler has also joined other Jewish celebrities in praising President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address. Her tweet says it all.

[Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]

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