Marvelous Miss M Bette Brings Tour To Spokane’s Opera House

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, December 6, 1996): Correction Ethel Merman played Mama Rose in “Gypsy.” A story about Bette Midler in the Thursday IN Life secton said otherwise.

Bette Midler in the Opera House.

That’s not a concert, that’s a concept.

But it’s true: The Divine Miss M herself will appear at the Opera House Tuesday. Tickets for the event - with a capital E - sold out in a mere 45 minutes last month.

The rare small-hall performance is part of a 10-day mini-tour that’s serving as a tuneup for an HBO concert special to be taped Jan. 10-11 in Las Vegas.

By her own account, Midler is singing better than ever these days - and enjoying it more. In an interview last year, Midler revealed that singing had become a chore.

“It used to be torture,” she said.

Self-doubt and perfectionism apparently had alwasy gnawed at America’s favorite diva. And despite a series of midcareer film successes - “The Rose,” “Beaches,” “Down on Out in Beverly Hills” and “For the Boys” - Midler said she had stopped loving to perform.

But then she accepted the role of Mama Rose in a CBS-TV adaptation of the hit Broadway musical “Gypsy.”

It’s a part she might have been able to do with her eyes closed, but that wasn’t good enough for Midler. She wanted to play Mama Rose with teh same vigor and intensity that Ethel Barrymore brought to the role.

“I wanted to sing in Ethel’s keys and I couldn’t,” she recalled. “Those songs were some of the toughest I’ve ever, ever had to sing.”

Instead of faking it, Midler took lessons in an effort to expand her range.

“I kind of stretched my voice a little bit,” she said. “I worked very hard and it really opened a lot of doors in my singing voice that I hadn’t had before.”

Her passion for singing reignited, Midler embarked on her first tour in a decade, the 32-city “Experience the Divine” tour.

“Once I got hold of that process, that newer, stronger voice, it really excited me. Actually, that’s the reason I went on the road. I got this new technique and I was really anxious to see if it made a difference with the old music.”

Must have, because now Midler’s doing it again. After putting her singing career on the back burner to make movies, she seems once again focused on her singing.

“I am completely different,” she said. “I like to sing now. I didn’t always used to.”

You wouldn’t have known it. When Midler sprang onto an unsuspecting world as the over-the-top star of New York’s gay Continental Baths, she was the very picture of confidence.

Everything she did bolstered that image. She hammed it up with Mick Jagger for her video remake of the Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” she delighted audiences with outrageous film roles, and she displayed a wicked sense of humor with such album titles as “Thighs and Whispers” and “Mud Will Be Flung Tonight.”

Last year, Midler cut her 16th record, “Bette of Roses.” Produced by her long-time friend, Arif Mardin, it includes traditional ballads, folk-influenced pieces, a New Age-y song and the country-flavored “I Know This Town.”

Its centerpiece is the demanding “To Deserve You,” a Maria McKee song with a challenging, two-octave span.

“Material opened up to me that wasn’t there before because I couldn’t hit the notes,” Midler said. “Now I can.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Bette Midler will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are sold out.