The Divine Miss M brings her uke
Posted: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 12:33 PM by Danielle Brennan
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Live from Studio 1A
A duet wasn’t in the script, but when Bette Midler dropped by Tuesday to chat with Meredith Vieira and brought along her ukulele, things just happened. Midler started strumming and they both started singing the old Dean Martin hit “The Glory of Love.” They harmonized like they’d been doing it for years:
You've got to give a little, take a little
And let your poor heart break a little
That's the story of,
That's the glory of love.
Still the diva’s diva, The Divine Miss M was in the TODAY studio to talk about her Las Vegas show, “The Showgirl Must Go On,” and her new compilation CD, “Jackpot: The Best Bette.” WATCH VIDEO
Vieira had been in Las Vegas when Midler was putting the show together at Caesar’s Palace, so Midler had dressed her in tights and put her through “Diva Boot Camp.” The two watched footage of Midler instructing the TODAY co-anchor in the art of wrist dangling, and congratulating her on the way she shimmied and sashayed across the stage.
Now 100 shows into her run, the tireless Midler is still dressing in a mermaid’s outfit every night, along with a lot of other costumes made mostly of sequins and feathers. She just turned 63 on Dec. 1 and is celebrating 24 years of marriage to husband Martin von Haselberg.
“How many happy?” Vieira kidded.
Midler smiled, seemed to think about it, and then decided, “Moments of all of them.”
Midler was born to be on stage, the bigger and gaudier the show the better. She did, after all, grow up in Hawaii, and one of her early professional gigs in New York was singing in a gay bathhouse accompanied on the piano by another young performer with big dreams – Barry Manilow.
She had wanted to play the ukulele since she was a girl, but was too poor to buy one. About a year ago she finally got one – it has a pink sounding board – and learned to play it.
Doing a big stage show is just as much fun as ever, she told Vieira. What’s hard is doing all the exercise and getting the right nutrition so that she can have the energy to perform every night.
“The show is not the grind. The show is fun,” she said. “The hard part is the warming up, doing the exercise, trying to keep your body from falling apart.”
Her husband comes out to keep her company and explore the many pleasures of Las Vegas. She also bowls, a game she took up during her “Kiss My Brass” tour of 2003-04.
“I’m such a good bowler,” she told Vieira. “They brought back my balls.”
“I don’t think those were ever missing,” Vieira quipped.
