Bette Midler to 1969, she played the role of Tzeitel in "Fiddler on the Roof" on Broadway. After "Fiddler", she joined the original cast of "Salvation" in 1969. She began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel, in the summer of 1970. During this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, "The Divine Miss M." It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album "Bathhouse Betty", Midler commented on her
Bette Midler of lesser known tracks from her catalog. Midler was one of the producers of the Broadway production of the musical "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", which opened in February 2011. In June 2012, Midler received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in recognition of her having "captivated the world" with her "stylish presentation and unmistakable voice." The same year, she co-starred alongside Billy Crystal in the family movie "Parental Guidance" (2012), playing a couple of old school grandparents trying to adapt to their daughter's 21st-Century parenting style. Despite generally negative reviews