Midler takes up residence at Caesars Palace Colosseum

Comedians have joked about Las Vegas being the place where entertainers were so old they needed wheelchairs. For Bette Midler, it's a dream come true.

Mermaids in electric wheelchairs, creating kaleidoscope patterns on a 120-foot stage, are part of the campy spectacle awaiting Midler's fans tonight, when the first paid ticket-holders see "The Showgirl Must Go On."

But the show does not go on the road, so Midler seizes the opportunity to surround her wheelchair-bound mermaid character Delores with a 13-piece band and a chorus line of free-rolling fins. The exclusive production will stay put at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, with 100 shows per year for at least two years.

"I could never afford to tour with 20 showgirls," the singer noted back in May when the venture was first announced. "It's a tremendous opportunity to be very imaginative," she said, but added that a resident stage also required her to be "careful and cautious. You don't want to just throw the kitchen sink up there."

On Monday, a nonpaying audience of hotel staff and invited guests watched the dry run of a personality-driven showcase that's modest by the standards of the previous tenant, Celine Dion, but still pays homage to the "feather shows" of Vegas past.

Or, as one song advertised, "Pretty legs, great big knockers, that's what sells them tickets at the door ... ."

But Midler's ribald humor still was front and center, with her apparent ad libs getting big laughs along with the scripted routines. Flubbing one dirty joke during her traditional turn as the old showgirl Sophie, she called out, "Come back Celine! All is forgiven!"

Another detour had her musing about the giant building-wrap mural of Toni Braxton across the street at the Flamingo. "She doesn't deserve that. And who gets the room between her legs? That's what I want to know. Thank you Travelocity!"

The 62-year-old singer also made a running gag of the 120-foot stage, at one point catching her breath on a sofa shaped like a pair of lips. "I know it seems like an awful lot of stage, but they gave it to me for an adjustable rate mortgage with no money down," she quipped.

Wayne Newton, the "American Idol" judges and an Elvis impersonator all had video cameos on the high-definition video screen first installed for Dion's show.

But, Midler doesn't short the serious side of her catalog. The 90-minute revue includes her hits "The Rose," "From A Distance" and "Wind Beneath My Wings," along with a less-expected cover of John Prine's "Hello In There."

Today's opening night crowd is expected to draw announced celebrities including Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Alan Thicke, Lionel Ritchie, Taye Diggs, Jennifer Coolidge, Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance, Kathy Najimy and Ricki Lake, along with Las Vegas-based performers Siegfried & Roy, George Wallace, Gladys Knight, Rita Rudner and Braxton. However, producers have asked critics to back off from reviews until Feb. 29.

When Midler reinvented cabaret for rock audiences in the early 1970s, it seemed as though her 1976 stint at Caesars Palace would be the first of many. Instead it was Barry Manilow, her one-time musical director, who embraced Las Vegas while Midler stuck to concert tours and a movie career.

The singer filmed her 1997 HBO special "Diva Las Vegas" at the MGM Grand, and returned to ring in 2000 with a New Year's show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. She began talking to AEG Live, the producers who operate the Colosseum, after her "Kiss My Brass" tour wound down in Australia in 2005.

"I wanted to see what it was like to have a show you didn't have to pack up and move, whether it be a prettier show or a more extravagant show," Midler said last spring.

The Colosseum avoids the pitfalls of one tour stop, where she did her mermaid routine and descended on a lift. "No one had figured out the stage was only 4 feet high and I was in a fish tail. I had to literally crawl 100 yards under the stage to get to my next destination," she recalled with a laugh. "Finally they worked out a way that I plopped myself into an office chair."

Now, she told the preview audience, a circular automated lift showcases her "fabulous" legs with no such low-tech hitches -- even if it did cost her 700 grand.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.