Will Bette Midler Return to Broadway as Sue Mengers in One-Woman Show by John Logan?

By Michael Gioia
26 Oct 2012

Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan is developing an untitled, one-woman show about the late Sue Mengers, with hopes of Bette Midler taking on the role of the Hollywood agent, according to the New York Post.

Mengers, who died in October 2011 from pneumonia, represented a long list of celebrities that included Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet, Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, Mike Nichols, Nick Nolte, Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Gore Vidal and Tuesday Weld, among others.

Midler, who has reportedly expressed interest in Logan's play, produced the recent Broadway musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert and been seen on Broadway in Bette! Divine Madness, Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue, Bette Midler and Fiddler on the Roof. She is a two-time Oscar nominee for "The Rose" and "For the Boys" and has also appeared on screen in "Gypsy," "Hocus Pocus" and "Beaches," among others. She received a Special Tony Award in 1974.

Logan received the 2010 Tony Award for his play Red. He is also the author of Never the Sinner and Hauptmann, among others. His work as a screenwriter includes "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Golden Globe Award), "The Aviator" (Academy, Golden Globe and Writers Guild of America Award nominations), "Gladiator" (Academy, Golden Globe and Writers Guild of America Award nominations), "The Last Samurai," "Any Given Sunday" and "RKO 281" (Writers Guild of America Award, Emmy Award nomination).