Bette Midler yanks out Celine’s stage

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 | 3:15 p.m.

"Make them fix the stage for you." -- Celine Dion's advice to Bette Midler, in the Las Vegas Sun, Dec. 14.

The Sun's Culture Blog just got word that Midler's rejiggered stage leaves the Tait Towers shop in Lititz, Penn., by truck on Monday and will head straight to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, where it will support the Divine Miss M. and her squadron of hoofers during their two-year run.

For Midler's "The Showgirl Must Go On," which bows Feb. 20, Tait is renovating and transforming the 4,100-seat Colosseum stage-- famously custom-built for Celine Dion with a precarious 5.7-degree angle and eye-popping projection effects.

According to the company, Midler isn't trying to outdo Dion on the technology front, which would be an almost unimaginable feat. Engineers worked with Midler and her design team to remake the stage to suit the star's desire to perform in a "traditional, technologically subtle, theater setting."

Subtle, Dion wasn't (and that word is not usually used in the same sentence with Midler, either).

The new stage -- planned to accommodate the rotation of future draws Elton John and perhaps Cher -- includes a 12 foot 6 center revolve atop the existing center-stage elevator, and also makes additional seating available in the venue.

"I don't like to intimidate people with technology, because it intimidates me," Midler recently told USA Today. "This is a chance to have lots of gorgeous girls in skimpy costumes. I love feathers and rhinestones and high heels. If it glitters, I've got to have it."