Bette Midler Read Online Free PDF Page A

fairy tale classic
Cinderella
, and in the evening they would spice it up for the adults and call it
Sinderella
. Again, Bette had the title role—playing an “ugly duckling” whose wildest dreams came true. It wasn’t long before life was due to imitate art for her.
    During this same time period, one of the hottest shows on Broadway was
Fiddler on the Roof
. It opened in 1964 and ran for seven years. In fact, at one point, when it hit 3,242 performances, it was the longest-running show on Broadway at that time. Due to the large cast and chorus, there were constant cast changes and periodic “open calls” where anyone could audition, whether they were members of Actor’s Equity or not. Bette went to several of the open auditions in an attempt to break into Broadway and become the big star of stage that she longed to be.
    Finally, after several auditions, in 1966 she landed a small part in
Fiddler on the Roof
, in the chorus. According to Bette, “EVENTUALLY, I got into
Fiddler
as a chorus girl, after about a whole year of auditioning on and off.” Although she didn’t have a specific role all her own, she was ecstatic: “I was actually on stage!” ( 25 ).
    Set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Russia,
Fiddler on the Roof
centers around a poor Jewish milkman named Tevya; his wife, Golde; and their daughters. His eldest daughter, Tzeitel, falls in love with a poor tailor named Motel. She wants to marry him instead of having an arranged marriage to someone else. The second daughter, Hodel, announces that she is going to marry Perchik, an idealistic revolutionary—without permission. And the third daughter, Chava, scandalously takes up with a man named Fyedka, who is a Christian. Inthe context of the musical, Tevya has several comical conversations with God, about his family and the decisions he is called upon to make. The story is about anti-Semitism, tradition, and how the world happens to be changing around them—all set to music.
    “When I was in the chorus,” Bette explains, “I understudied the part of Tzeitel, and when the part opened, [director] Jerry Robbins had to see all the girls up for it, but the lady who was casting didn’t want me to have the job. She called me up two hours before the audition, and said I didn’t have a prayer. But if I didn’t go in, she said, I could have the chorus job back” ( 11 ).
    Bette, who had found the original chorus job to be a temporary assignment, was dying to get back into the show, so she decided to gamble. According to her, “I at least wanted to get a look at Robbins—I worship the ground he dances upon—so I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m taking the audition!’ ” ( 11 ). She was cast in the part, and she stayed in
Fiddler on the Roof
for three years as Tzeitel, the eldest of the three daughters in the family. During those three years, the roles of the other two sisters were played by several actresses who also had their sights on bigger things. Among the girls to play Bette’s sisters were Adrienne Barbeau and Pia Zadora.
    “I was really good in
Fiddler
for the first two years,” says Bette. “But in the third year I came to a screeching halt. There I was in the third year, working for the same money I made in the first, breaking my ass, and feeling miserable because I couldn’t get into agents’ offices. And when they would send me out for auditions, the people wouldn’t like the way I looked, or the way I sounded. I couldn’t make them understand that there was really something there” ( 25 ).
    “I saw it wasn’t going to be the way I thought it was going to be,” she continues. “I wanted to work a lot, to grow, and the theater is a closed market. I couldn’t get anything else, and the way I was brought up, I was taught you must work. But I came to New York to have a career, not to be in one show, so at the end of the second year, I thought, ‘Time to move,’ and I had a bunch of experiences that related to that move. I was getting very