Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Bette Midler asked to do Mame
AnythingGoes23
Broadway Star Joined: 11/21/11
#1Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:04pmAccording to Playbill in an interview she said she was asked to do Mame last year... That would have been something! She doesn't go into why she didn't do it. But if the show were to ever come back it would need a name like hers to make it a hit again in a big way.
#2Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:08pmI think she'd be wonderful as Mame.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#2Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:26pmI think she could be a great Dolly, too.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#3Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:30pmYou're joking, right? The woman is simply too old to be Mame. About 22 years too old. Remember how everyone said Lucy Ball was too old at 62? Bette is 67!
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#4Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:33pmI don't remember that, but it's probably because I wasn't alive.
#5Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:35pmNor was I, darling, but I have eyes and can read.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#8Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 2:34pm"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking"
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
#9Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 2:44pmThis is nothing at all against La Bette, you understand. Clearly she was smart enough to turn it down. I'm just saying that there are MANY wonderful actresses who can play Mame who AREN'T approaching 70.
#10Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:05pmWhoever they choose, I hope they give us a "Bosom Buddies" that isn't slow as molasses and actually has some BOUNCE to it.
#11Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:27pmWho do you feel did Bosom Buddies as slow as molasses?
#13Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:46pmYes, Beatrice was wonderful, but Anne "Flora Simpson Reilly" Francine was great too.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#14Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:52pmToo old, short, fat, Jewish. Mame is supposed to be an elegant WASP. The show spans 20 years. At the beginning of the show, she should appear to be no older than her late 30's. Otherwise, she's a pathetic old maid - she's Gooch.
#15Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:56pmThank you Jon. I basically agree with you. I actually think you can have a 50 year old Mame (I believe that was Roz's age) but ya CAN'T have a 67 year old Mame. Let's get serious here, folks.
#16Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:02pmLilias White.
....but the world goes 'round
#17Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:31pmReally? Because I personally would have loved a 60+ Patti LuPone Fantine who could belt than hear Anne Hathaway sob her way through "I Dreamed a Dream". You don't need to make YOURSELF cry, you need o make your AUDIENCE cry. I think Bette Midler would make an amazing Mame, regardless of her age. Didn't Mary Martin play Maria, a 20 something postulate successfully at 47?
#18Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:33pm
Yes but 62 is the new 40 so she could do it.
And I'd buy Cher, or Barbra or Bette or just about any other old
diva broad.
#19Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:33pm
Yes but 62 is the new 40 so she could do it.
And I'd buy Cher, or Barbra or Bette or just about any other old
diva broad.
#21Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:42pm
Are you people effing high? Mame NEEDS to be 38-50 to work. Having a 70 year old play her would be ABSURD. It would defeat it's own purpose.
Updated On: 5/11/13 at 04:42 PM
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#22Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:52pm
Several years ago I was hoping for a Mame movie starring Bette. You have to remember that some people's reference points to the story are Roz Russell and Lucille Ball, neither of which are elegant WASPs.
I also think that in Bette's short-lived tv series that is what they were going for. A zany Bette (Mame) with a dryly funny Joanna Gleason (Vera).
Still, nobody will ever be able to deliver "I was never in the chorus" like Bea Arthur did.
gossipguy215, I said the same thing about Anne Hathaway on this board and got roundly excoriated for it. But Hathaway wasn't going for truth in the role, she was going for an Oscar. (For a funny commentary on this attitude, watch the Kate Winslet episode of Extras where Winslet has all the Oscar angles figured out.)
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Updated On: 5/11/13 at 04:52 PM
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#23Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 6:30pmIt's not about how old she is in real life. It's about what people will perceive her as. Who cares what her actual age is, can she pull off 50? etc.
#24Bette Midler asked to do Mame
Posted: 5/11/13 at 6:35pmSorry but a 70 year old woman CANNOT pull off 38-40. She just can't. Witness Lucy as Mame. Case closed.
