Catherine Alcorn’s show ‘The Divine Miss Bette’ is one of the best shows that I have seen in the tribute show genre.

Alcorn has a bit of the inside running on doing a Middler show as her vocal coach is Steve Ostrow, who back in the 1970’s owned the legendary Continental baths in New York where Middler and fellow artist Barry Manilow first got their starts.

Wagga muso Peter Cox devised the show, an artist who specialises in this kind of production. (Cox devised the impressive show ‘Moonshadow’, a Cat Stevens tribute show that has since gone on to have a further life as the show ‘Peace Train’ which is presently coming to the close of a successful national tour. Next month, Cox is introducing his new tribute show about American rock band Meatloaf to hometown audiences). The show premiered in Wagga in December 2009 to sell out crowds and has been playing the Riverina, and in September headlined the Temora Showgirl dinner Dance.

Now, Alcorn, Cox and producer Don Hillam have brought the show to Sydney for the first time. The talented Alcorn delivers, with style and panache, some of the finest material in Middler’s collection, from the upbeat, jazzy numbers such
as ‘Friends’, ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ and ‘Miss Otis Regrets’ to stirring ballads such as ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ and ‘The Rose’.

In between numbers Alcorn goes into heavy Bette Middler drawl, as she shoots off at the mouth and tells some of Middler’s classic one liners, such as, ‘I dressed up like I was Poland and then my husband invaded me’. The audience lapped up the music, the attitude and the gags. She was backed on stage by a pianist and her Harlettes, sassily performed by Karla Hillau and Michelle Brasier.

Alcorn’s show played for one night only, on Thursday 11th November, 2010, at Slide, 41 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, one of Sydney’s leading cabaret venues. The show has since been booked for a return performance at Slide on Thursday 27th January, 2011. A packaged show, ‘The Divine Miss Bette’ is available for corporate and private events, festivals and venues.