Talented Midler Brings Her Divineness To Spokane
Madness, divine madness, reigned at the box office on Nov. 9.
Tickets for Bette Midler’s Dec. 10 concert in the Spokane Opera House sold out in 45 minutes.
Lengthy lines of Midlermaniacs were waiting at every G&B Select-a-Seat outlet; some went home disappointed. The show is at the 2,600-seat Opera House, but with this kind of demand, Midler may have been able to sell out the 10,000-seat Spokane Arena, even at the gasp-inducing price range of $59.50 to $39.50 per ticket.
Which leads to two obvious questions: Why the Opera House? And why Spokane at all? As for the first question, it appears that Midler is favoring smaller, more intimate venues, at least for the first part of the tour. For instance, she is playing the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, B.C.
As for the second question, the only true answer is: Spokane got lucky. “She typically doesn’t play a place like Spokane,” said Jack Lucas of G&B Select-a-Seat. “Kudos to MCA Northwest for landing this event.”
This is a mini-tour of only 10 cities, all in the West, including Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Denver, Phoenix and various California locations. It is a tune-up of sorts for a big HBO concert special to be taped at the last stop, Las Vegas, on Jan. 10 and 11.
Midler has not done a live concert since her Radio City Music Hall shows in New York two years ago. Spokane will be the third stop on this tour behind Costa Mesa, Calif., and Vancouver.
Bonnie Bruckheimer, the executive producer of the HBO special, was quoted in the Hollywood Reporter as saying that the concert will be a Midleresque mix of comedy and music.
As for the speed with which the Spokane show sold out, fans may be disappointed but not surprised.
“Streisand, Midler - there are only a few superstars,” said Lucas.
Der Bingle keeps ‘em coming
Bing remains a big tourist attraction at Gonzaga University.
Gonzaga’s Bing Crosby Collection attracted 2,300 visitors from 22 countries over the past year. The Crosbyana Room displays 150 Bing-related items, including his gold and platinum records and his Oscar for “Going My Way.”
The latest acquisition: another one of Bing’s pipes.
Bing studied pre-law at Gonzaga in the 1920s while honing his vaudeville act for the big time. He received an honorary doctorate in 1937.
Spokane’s Mark Twain expert
A&E’s “Biography” segment on Mark Twain, scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., should prove interesting not only for its insights into Samuel Clemens.
It will also feature an interview with Joe McCullough, a Twain expert and graduate of Gonzaga Prep in 1961 and Gonzaga University in 1966.
McCullough is now an English professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He, along with Howard Baetzhold, edited the critically acclaimed “The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden and the Flood,” which is now out in paperback.
No Bulls
The TV listings may say that the Chicago Bulls are on WGN (Cox Cable 64), but don’t expect to find the games on the air in Spokane, or anywhere else outside Chicago.
A legal dispute between WGN and the NBA means that the Bulls games are barred from being distributed on WGN’s national satellite feed. Movies are running in place of the games.
WGN is fighting the court decision and “is optimistic that the court will ultimately rule in favor of satellite distribution.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
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