Bette Midler asked to do Mame

[AnythingGoes23]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:04pm

According 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.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:08pm

I think she'd be wonderful as Mame.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:26pm

I think she could be a great Dolly, too.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:30pm

You'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]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:33pm

I don't remember that, but it's probably because I wasn't alive.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:35pm

Nor was I, darling, but I have eyes and can read.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:36pm

I don't have eyes.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 1:39pm

That explains A LOT.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 2:34pm

"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking"

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 2:44pm

This 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.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:05pm

Whoever they choose, I hope they give us a "Bosom Buddies" that isn't slow as molasses and actually has some BOUNCE to it.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:27pm

Who do you feel did Bosom Buddies as slow as molasses?

[BroadwayStar4]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:42pm

Bea Arthur will always be Vera.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:46pm

Yes, Beatrice was wonderful, but Anne "Flora Simpson Reilly" Francine was great too.

[Jon]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:52pm

Too 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.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 3:56pm

Thank 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.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:02pm

Lilias White.

[gossipguy215]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:31pm

Really? 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?

[goldenboy]

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.

[goldenboy]

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.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 4:34pm

Gwenyth Paltrow should play Mame

[lovebwy]

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]

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.)

Updated On: 5/11/13 at 04:52 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 6:30pm

It'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.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/11/13 at 6:35pm

Sorry but a 70 year old woman CANNOT pull off 38-40. She just can't. Witness Lucy as Mame. Case closed.