On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide

A “gay camp sensibility” has helped make Bette Midler a “singular talent across media for more than fifty years,” according to this effusive biography from library curator Winkler (Everything Is Choreography). Finding her voice in 1970s “song-and-comedy” performances at gay bathhouses, Midler developed a comic style that mixed bawdy humor, unabashed camp (her fashion style was “trash with flash”), and the “outsider’s perspective” she gleaned as an “unattractive Jewish girl from Hawaii” who’d failed to find success in mainstream show biz. Winkler covers Midler’s years on Broadway, her television and film roles, and her somewhat rockier transition to recording music, a medium that could obscure her onstage flair (in the 1975 album Songs for the New Depression, for example, Midler’s vocals are sanded down into “a smooth pop-singer sound,” Winkler writes, as if she’s trying to rid her voice “of its distinctive edge”). Though he tends to gush over the star—breathless analyses of her stage work abound; even a ragged-voiced nightclub performance is characterized as “transcendent art”—Winkler dutifully accounts for such missteps as the failed 2000 sitcom Bette and takes stock of the unevenness of her oeuvre, which he attributes partly to Hollywood’s casting biases. Winkler’s blend of dishy backstage detail, over-the-top adoration, and solid criticism befit his larger-than-life subject. Midler’s fans will find plenty to sink their teeth into. (Apr.)