by Albert Rodriguez - SGN A&E Writer

BETTE MIDLER
KEY ARENA
June 1

She can sing, she can act, she's won Grammys, she's won Emmys, she's a twice Best Actress-Oscar nominee, she does movies and TV and Broadway, and she brilliantly segues from belting out an emotional ballad to telling a filthy joke. She is an original.

If you don't like Bette Midler, you're either straight or pretending to be straight. She is that fabulous all-around entertainer we could watch and listen to for hours. Her films are like visual comfort food; they give us a much needed cry, they make us laugh every time, we sing along to them, and as fixtures of our personal movie collections, we've guaranteed their upgrade from VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray.

Her music is timeless. High school choirs still harmonize to 'The Rose,' while karaoke queens continue doing their meanest versions of 'Wind Beneath My Wings' at Gay bars around the globe (I remember someone killing it at a Tokyo bar once). She's an excellent pop standards vocalist; her 2003 album Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook, produced by Barry Manilow, featured wonderful arrangements of 'Tenderly,' 'This Ole House,' and 'Mambo Italiano,' and her personal twist on TLC's 'Waterfalls,' off 2014's It's the Girls, was surprisingly a knockout. But my personal Bette Midler jams are, and might always be, 'I Think It's Going to Rain Today,' the Randy Newman-penned track from Beaches, and her moving rendition of Judy Gold's 'From a Distance.' I could listen to them - and I have - over and over and over again.

Other people know Midler's biography and catalog of work much better than I do, and some have seen her multiple times compared to my just once, though I really do cherish this woman: there's no one like her out there. Plus, she dines with the Queen of England...well, Adele, when in London.

Midler's 22-city tour will touch down in Seattle on Monday, June 1 at Key Arena. The performance will include material from her lengthy career and It's the Girls! There will be singing, of course, and probably crowd interaction, a little bit of dancing, and jokes usually catered to each audience (think: Starbucks, or Bill Gates), and quite possibly a mermaid pushed across the stage in a wheelchair (or something along those lines). Just don't expect any duets with Ariana Grande; I'm not sure these two have patched things up. Anyway, the concert will be incredibly fun and memorable, making for a great date night or belated Mother's Day treat, or a terrific gift for an upcoming grad.

For tickets to see the Divine Miss M, go to livenation.com.

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