Bette on the Tonight Show in 2014Bette Midler basically gave the game away in a tweet last night but today it's official: The Divine Miss M will be taking over Carol Channing's signature role Dolly Levi in a Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!" due in the Spring of 2017. Carol Channing made a huge enduring career out of the role, of course, playing it three different times across four decades on Broadway and touring with it, too. Barbra Streisand tried to wrestle the role away from her in the movie musical adaptation in 1969 -- there are multiple catty anecdotes about this in the trivia-filled gossipy book "Roadshow! The Fall of the Film Musicals in the 1960s" that do not paint a pretty picture of Babs -- but despite the plentiful Oscar nominations thrown that movies way, it didn't really stick and no one thinks of Dolly as anyone's but Channing's.
Babs, Bette, Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey after the jump...
So Midler has big flashy shoes to fill. And Dolly herself is still with us! Carol Channing turns 95 this month.
Rumors of a "Hello Dolly!" revival tend to swirl around every musical diva of a certain age but it looks like this one is already further than most have been to actually happening though there is no theater announced yet. A lot can happen in a year with Broadway shows but we'll cross our fingers because it sounds like a terrific fusion of supersized star and role.
In Bette's illustrious career she's won three Emmys, three Grammys, and four Golden Globes. But the Oscar never happened despite two Best Actress nominations (The Rose, For the Boys) and a string of 1980s box office hits. Non competitive prizes are a subject of contention amongst awards nerds so Bette is either an Oscar short of an EGOT (she has a special Tony) or nowhere close -- unless she wins Best Actress for this "Hello, Dolly!" revival in June 2017. Stay tuned.
And now a brief diva-filled Hello Dolly! history...
The original production in 1964 was the biggest Tony hit of its year winning 10 of its 11 nominations including for Carol Channing who beat Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl to take Best Actress in a Musical. (They each parlayed their mid 60s Broadway musical smashes to big Hollywood musicals -- Channing was nominated for Supporting Actress for 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie and Streisand won Best Actress for 1968's Funny Girl.
The first Dolly! ran for an incredible six years -- which back then made it the longest running musical on Broadway in history though other shows would later surpass it. It closed almost exactly a year after Barbra Streisand's movie adaptation (her Tony-losing revenge?) opened in theaters in December 1969.
The first revival of "Hello, Dolly!" in 1975 starred Pearl Bailey -- who is featured with Carol Channing in that last must see video above which takes a swipe at Babs (!!!) -- but it flopped lasting just over a month. The second and third revivals in 1978 and 1995 (which both starred Carol Channing) each ran for a few months receiving one Tony nomination each.
P.S. for more Hello Dolly history try this fine page at the Barbra Streisand Archives.