To be kind, let's just say the Bette version ... does not hold up. Have you taken a peek lately? She goes down on the camera lens. It's a terribly calibrated performance by everyone, Midler but especially the director and editor, so wrongly considered for the small screen in every way (though some of it would be too big for Radio City). She needed help to scale the heights while still finding the human dimension. It plays like she's pushing, lacking confidence, in just about every sequence. It's too bad, because one would think she would be a natural Rose. But oddly enough, she seems very wrong for it. As right as she -- and the Midler persona -- proved to be for Sue Mengers. I think assuming any performer who trades on an outre performance style is right for Rose is a mistake. One of the reasons Daly, Lansbury and Peters worked for me: they found the woman underneath the iconic Merman outline, so many other colors. When Rose is a Mt. Rushmore drag act, she has no breath of recognizable life and though it never damages the show -- it's too perfect -- it can be exhausting to experience.
Streisand, to me, was possibly wrong twenty years ago. I just don't think the raw, low-class gutter thing comes easily to her. Rose has no inherent class, it's all show, borrowed, with an expiration date; Rose doesn't have those odd vowels Arthur Laurents talks about Streisand using in WAY WE WERE that marred her performance. She needs to strip away the Streisand persona entirely and build from the ground up. To me, it can't be done. It's been said before many times, but I fear a Lucy Mame with better vocals.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling