Episode 143: Bette On The Half Shell: The Theatre of Bette Midler, part 2

On today’s episode author Kevin Winkler returns for the second part of our discussion of his fascinating new book, On Bette Midler — An Opinionated Guide.

If you missed part one of this conversation, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.

In that episode, Kevin and I touched on Bette’s childhood, explored her early years in the off-off-Broadway experimental and very campy Gay theater scene, detailed her unusual rise to at least demi-stardom at the Continental Baths, her debut on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof, and her Tony Award wining concert at the Palace Theater which set the stage for the first of what Kevin calls her Broadway musicals of her own devising: Bette Midler’s Clams On The Halfshell Revue, conceived and staged by Broadway director/choreographer Joe Layton, and the shows that followed.

For more than twenty years Kevin Winkler was a curator, archivist, and administrator at the New York Public Library, and prior to that, he was a professional dancer. His previous books include the award-winning Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical in 2018, and Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theatre of Tommy Tune. Kevin and I discussed that terrific book on several episodes of Broadway Nation back at the beginning of 2022.

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