Being Bette

Two years ago when Bette Midler toured Australia for the first time in 30 years, the legendary diva famously announced, I am not retiring and you can’t make me. There is life in this old act yet.

Those words seems to have struck a chord with Belinda Lemon, who has been playing Midler in her cabaret act Outrageously Divine around the country for the best part of 10 years.

Lemon, who bears both a striking physical and vocal resemblance to the Grammy-winning legend, has no interesting in giving up on her Midler show either. In fact, she has even found a new avenue of performance that the Divine Miss M probably never thought of.

On Monday nights, Lemon can be found at the AB Hotel in Glebe, channelling Midler as the host of the new TV Trivia and Bingo Night, with speciality subjects including such camp TV favourites as Will & Grace, Kath & Kim, Absolutely Fabulous and Queer As Folk.

Then on Thursday nights, Lemon returns as Midler, in full-throttled vocal performance mode as she belts out a range of classics in the tribute show, Outrageously Divine.

I don’t think it could get any gayer around here -“ a trivia night with topics like these, being hosted by Bette Midler, she says.

Lemon’s residency at the AB Hotel is an attempt to market the favourite old Glebe pub to a new crowd, with both the high-camp antics of the trivia night on Mondays, as well as the cabaret crooning on Thursdays.

The thing I think will work with this venue is that is very intimate and the audience gets pretty involved in what’s going on, she explains. What I am doing is primarily the same songs as in the past, but it is a very different presentation of them.

In her act, Lemon includes such Midler standards as The Rose, Wind Beneath My Wings, From A Distance and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, but hopes to try out some new material during her residency.

People are always asking if I do certain Bette songs, and there are some I have never attempted, but I feel that this is the time to take them on. So I will try things at the AB that people haven’t seen me do before, she says.

I always love performing as Bette as you have to work hard, and then having people enjoy it makes everything worth it. That is why I still love doing Bette.

a Her range of material is demanding and challenging. It has never got easy so, when I feel I have sung this material and done it well, I still get a buzz out of it.

AB Fabulous TV Trivia and Bingo is on Mondays. Outrageously Divine is on Thursday in the cabaret room, Moskaba. The AB Hotel is on the corner of Bridge and Glebe Point Roads in Glebe. Bookings on 9660 1417.