Out today is the latest single from Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett's album of American songbook standards, which was a surprise hit and made 88 year-old Bennett the oldest living artist to achieve a #1 pop album.
RELATED: In other "gay icon remakes oldies" news, Bette Midler tied Babs for a chart record last week.
Bette Midler celebrates a fifth consecutive decade of top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, as It’s the Girls debuts at No. 3. She's only the second woman, following Barbra Streisand, to notch Top 10 albums in each of the last five decades (1970s through 2010s). The new album's arrival gives Midler her highest debut ever, her second-highest charting album, and sixth top 10 overall. The three-time Grammy Award winner's first Top 10 came with her debut, The Divine Miss M, which arrived almost 42-years ago on the chart dated Dec. 9, 1972. It peaked at No. 9 the following March. She later visited the top 10 with a self-titled album (No. 6 in 1974), the Beaches soundtrack (No. 2 in 1989), Some People's Lives (No. 6 in 1991) and Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook (No. 10 in 2005).
Bette Midler is paying tribute to some of the greatest harmonies performed by girl groups in music history with her upcoming collection of covers It’s the Girls. The album, available November 4 from Warner Bros. records, features 15 classic tracks by legendary ladies including the Ronettes, the Supremes, TLC, and the Chiffons, among others.
TLC's critically-raved original spent seven week atop the Billboard pop singles chart in 1995. Bette includes their reference to HIV ("three letters took him to his final resting place"), but coupled with this rather funereal arrangement, that sort of doom somehow feels less fitting nearly 20 years later. She does sound as great as always.
Midler is one of most prolific of the politically aware celebs on Twitter and she is often the subject of scornful, mocking posts over on Twitchy. The most ridiculed celeb in Teabagistan in probably Cher for her daily rants against the Tea Party.
The Divine Miss M. is taking on the great Mae West. HBO Films has put in development Mae West, a movie about the true Hollywood original, with Bette Midler attached to star and executive produce. The project is the brainchild of William Friedkin (The Exorcist), who will direct and executive produce. Broadway heavyweight Harvey Fierstein, who recently penned the book for Tony-winning musical Kinky Boots, is writing the script. Also executive producing is Jerry Weintraub, who executive produced HBO Films’ Emmy-winning Behind The Candelabra. Mae West, based on West’s autobiography Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, chronicles West’s rise into stardom when she takes New York by storm after writing and starring in her scandalous Broadway show Sex and battles authorities over obscenity charges.
The wingnuts over at Townhall have issued a "blacklist" of artists that God-fearing patriots should refuse to support.
When it comes to musicians who attack conservatives, Christians, Republicans, America -- or alternately, embrace the Left, don't give them your money. Don't buy their albums or their T-shirts and don’t go to their shows. Even if you do like their music, don't pay for it and don't talk it up publicly. Fans are oxygen for these people -- starve them of it and let other musicians start to worry about the reaction if they go after us. That's not unfair; it's just restoring balance. People who rely on the goodwill of the general public shouldn't be trashing the people who pay their bills. Artists should be flattered, not outraged when Republican politicians want to use their songs. Conservatives in the music industry shouldn't be cowed into silence by threats and abuse while liberal musicians smear the conservatives, Christians, Republicans and patriots who buy their records with no repercussions.
On the list: Madonna, Moby, Bette Midler, Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, Psy, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against The Machine, Barbra Streisand, and Kanye West.
"I can’t see women doing that. It bothers me. I cannot sit and watch a lady diminish her qualities to the lowest common denominator. I just can’t do that." - Jerry Lewis, telling an interviewer at Cannes that he doesn't have any favorite female comedians because they are an embarrassment to motherhood. Or something. Lewis' comments have ignited a firestorm of criticism on Twitter, where noted female comics are weighing in under the #FuckUJerryLewis hashtag among others.
2013 Tony Award Nominees Announced, Cyndi Lauper Scores Big For Kinky Boots
The 2013 Tony Award nominees were announced in NYC this morning at a press conference hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sutton Foster. Topping the list with 13 nominations is the Cyndi Lauper-scored Kinky Boots. Notably shut out was Bette Midler and we've got dueling gays in the Best Leading Actor In A Play category. Via Broadway.com:
Best Musical A Christmas Story Bring It On Kinky Boots Matilda
Best Play Lucky Guy The Assembled Parties The Testament of Mary Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Best Revival of a Play Golden Boy Orphans The Trip to Bountiful Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Best Revival of a Musical Annie Cinderella Pippin The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Best Leading Actor in a Play
Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
Nathan Lane, The Nance
Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Tom Sturridge, Orphans
Best Leading Actress in a Play
Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place
Amy Morton, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Holland Taylor, Ann
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful
Best Leading Actor in a Musical
Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Santino Fontana, Cinderella
Rob McClure, Chaplin
Billy Porter, Kinky Boots
Stark Sands, Kinky Boots
Best Leading Actress in a Musical
Stephanie J. Block, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Carolee Carmello, Scandalous
Valisia LeKae, Motown: The Musical
Patina Miller, Pippin
Laura Osnes, Cinderella
Gay authors Harvey Fierstein (Kinky Boots) and Douglas Carter Beane (Cinderella) are nominated for Best Book. Hit the link for the full list.
Bette Midler returns to Broadway this spring for the first time in over 30 years to star in a new one-woman show about casting agent Sue Mengers titled I'll Eat You Last. Via press release:
Sue Mengers was an American original. She was the first female “superagent” at a time when women talent agents of any kind were almost unheard of. She came from near poverty, a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and worked her way up through pluck, charm, and a legendary wit. In that uniquely American way, she invented herself; and when the career she wanted didn't exist, she invented that as well: “Superagent.” It was a term Hollywood all but coined for her. By the 1970's, she represented almost every major star in Hollywood and went on to become the town’s most renowned hostess.
The show will be directed by multiple Tony winner Joe Mantello. Opening day is April 24th at a Schubert theater to be announced. Ticketing has not yet commenced. Midler last played Broadway with a limited engagement of her Divine Madness show in 1980.
Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize is The Showgirl Must Go On, a live recording of superstar Bette Midler's long-running and critically raved Las Vegas extravaganza at Caesar's Palace. The Showgirl Must Go Onbecomes available on DVD and Blu-ray across North America today at music outlets and online.
The New York Times exults, “Like all great showgirls, she [Midler] may wear sequins like a second skin, but the woman underneath is all flesh and blood, humor and heart.” The $10 million extravaganza played over 300 performances in a nearly three-year run at the famed Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace. Taped before thousands in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the 70-minute cavalcade feaures many of Ms. Midler's colorful and classic stage and screen characters. Joining her on the gargantuan stage is an energetic corps of talented performers, including the staggering Harlettes, twenty dazzling dancers she calls The Caesar Salad Girls and a 13-piece band. The production was nominated for a 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special.
We have two DVDs and two Blu-ray copies of The Showgirl Must Go On. Enter to win your copy by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. Entries close at midnight on Thursday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.
Bette Midler isn't too pleased that Lady Gaga has launched a concert bit in which she dresses as a wheelchair-bound mermaid. Midler, of course, has been doing her Delores Delago character for decades.
- Openly gay Broadway star Marty Thomas (Wicked, Xanadu) is suing Twitter to force them to disclose the identity of a user who claimed that Thomas was given crabs by a cast member of Avenue Q. Thomas said in court papers: "I do not suffer from, nor have I ever suffered from a sexually transmitted disease." Twitter has never been forced to identify an anonymous user.
- In The Heights star Janet Dacal opens this April in a new musical "inspired by" Alice In Wonderland. Also cast is openly gay singer/dancer Tituss Burgess (Jersey Boys). Music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll And Hyde).
- Openly gay actor T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy) and Patrick Stewart opened last night in the revival of David Mamet's A Life In The Theatre, which first ran on Broadway in 1977. One early review isn't so great.
- The Professional Bull Riders Association will hold a competition in the middle of Times Square today at 1pm. The specially-built arena is supposed be "one city block" in size. Free and open to the public.
- Openly gay Tony winner David Hyde Pierce opened last night in the revival of David Hirson's flop La Bete to decidedly mixed reviews.
- Four major musicals are opening on Broadway this fall without the usual out-of-town tryouts due to the cost. One result - terrible scenery glitches for Women On The Verge have resulted in show stoppages and apologies from the stage.
- Bette Midler so loves the musical version of Priscilla: Queen Of The Desert that she has become one of its producers. The show made its North American debut in Toronto this week and lands on Broadway in the spring.
- The Real Housewives of New York's Countess LuAnn de Lesseps is reportedly talking to casting directors from Chicago and La Cage Aux Folles about joining their shows. Money can't buy you class, as her "song" goes.
- Broadway Speaks Out founder Marti Gould Cummings opens a new weekly Broadway revue at the Upper East Side's Evolve Bar this Tuesday. First to appear are Next To Normal's Emma Hunton and Stonewall Sensation winner Erik Sisco. Showtime 10:30pm.
- Tony winner Betty Buckley (Cats) has released a new nine-track album titled Bootleg: Boardmixes from the Road. Buckley, who has been cast as Anna Madrigal in the musical version of Tales Of The City, plays Manhattan's Town Hall tomorrow night as part of their Broadway Cabaret Festival. Get tickets here.
