Bette Midler in 'I'll Eat You Last': What did the critics think?

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“Birdman” actress Emma Stone (center), took on Roundabout Theatre Company’s “Cabaret.” Pictured with Gayle Rankin, left, Andrea Goss, Kristin Olness, Stacey Sipowicz, Kaleigh Cronin and Jessica Pariseau. (Joan Marcus / Roundabout Theatre)

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Oscar winner Helen Mirren once again portrays Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan’s play “The Audience,” directed by two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Actress Carly Hughes and Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles perform during a rehearsal for Broadway’s “Chicago.” (Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images)

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Sienna Miller, center, and Alan Cumming, right, appear at the curtain call following her debut performance in Broadway’s “Cabaret.” (Greg Allen / Invision / Associated Press)

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“Nightcrawler” actor Jake Gyllenhaal, left, and Ruth Wilson stand onstage at the opening night curtain call of “Constellations” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. (Greg Allen / Invision / Associated Press)

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Bradley Cooper, left, Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson perform in “The Elephant Man” at the Booth Theatre in New York. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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“Wolverine” actor Hugh Jackman played The Man in “The River,” a play by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson, at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York. (Richard Termine / Associated Press)

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Film actors Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal made their Broadway debuts Oct. 30 in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” in New York. ( Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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James Franco, left, with Jim Norton, made his Broadway debut in “Of Mice and Men” in March.

REVIEW: ‘Of Mice and Men’ finds James Franco in CliffsNotes mode (Richard Phibbs / Associated Press)

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Four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening is no stranger to the stage having started her acting career in theater. Above, Bening performs a compilation of four Ruth Draper vignettes in “Ruth Draper’s Monologues,” scheduled to run through May 18 at the Geffen Playhouse.

REVIEW: Annette Bening pays fine tribute in ‘Ruth Draper’s Monologues’ (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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“CSI” alum William Petersen made his Los Angeles stage debut in this year’s “Slowgirl” at the Geffen Playhouse. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Tom Hiddleston returned to the stage as the title character in Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” after playing Loki in “Thor,” “The Avengers” and “Thor: The Dark World.” The production opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London on Dec. 17 to glowing reviews and continues through Feb. 13. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Ethan Hawke took on the title role in the Lincoln Center Theater’s production of “Macbeth” that opened on Nov. 21, 2013, and closed Jan. 12. (T Charles Erickson / Associated Press)

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Daniel Radcliffe went from boy wizard in “Harry Potter” to baring all in a Broadway revival of Peter Shaffer’s 1973 Tony-winning play “Equus.”

The casting of the “Harry Potter” frontman as the psychologically disturbed stable boy caused a stir as the then 17-year-old would appear nude in one scene.

Radcliffe wowed critics and earned a Drama Desk nomination for his role. (Uli Weber / Associated Press)

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Jude Law, who played the title role in 2009, and most of the British cast transported the Donmar Warehouse production from the Wyndham’s Theatre in London to Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre after a successful run. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Julia Roberts made her Broadway debut in the revival of Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain,” which opened April 12, 2006. Paul Rudd, above, and Bradley Cooper also starred in the play that called for actors to play roles from two generations of family members. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis portrayed Troy Maxson and Troy’s wife, Rose in the 2010 version of “Fences.” Their portrayals in the August Wilson play netted the pair lead actor Tony Awards. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, both with impressive stage and screen credits, starred in Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain.”

The two-person play, which cast the duo as a pair of cops, opened Sept. 29, 2009. (Joan Marcus / AP)

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Oscar-winner Al Pacino got to recite the famous “Hath not a Jew eyes” speech multiple times as Shylock in both the 2004 film and the 2010 Broadway production of “The Merchant of Venice.” (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

By Jamie Wetherbe

April 25, 2013 7:30 AM PT

Recalling an age of highly crafted public personas, the new Broadway play “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers” reflects on a Hollywood era when movie deals were made over dinner parties instead of smartphones.

Bette Midler stars as the rough-talking, pot-smoking superagent Sue Mengers in a much-anticipated production that opened Wednesday at the Booth Theatre.

Mengers, the mother of a male-dominated business, repped some of the top stars in the ‘70s, including Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Burt Reynolds and Nick Nolte.

PHOTOS: Hollywood stars on stage

Tony-winner John Logan (“Red”) penned the one-woman show set in Mengers’ Beverly Hills living room during a darker workday with Midler-as-Mengers dishing on her A-list clients.

“I’ll Eat You Last” marks Midler’s return to the stage after a 33-year absence. The first reviews from New York are in, and so far, critics are hungry for more.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote that Milder’s stage presence is “galvanizing” in a role that “barely requires her to move anything but her mouth.” He added that the script skims the surface of Mengers’s complex character, but Midler charms audiences into “enjoying this experience for what it is: a Broadway bonbon.”

FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview

Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum writes that the play “flows gracefully,” flitting from Hollywood wisdom to gossip, and that under Joe Mantello’s “dynamic direction” Midler manages to make “lounging and smoking look both lazy and athletic.”

Charles Isherwood of the New York Times praised Midler’s “lusciously entertaining” performance in a “delectable soufflé” of a show. He added while Logan wrote a “tangy and funny” script, only Midler could captivate an audience “from first joke to last toke.”

The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones writes that Midler “gives good dish” and the audience eats it up like “a star-struck caterer used to listening at the door.” And for those who can afford an invite to the party, watching an “outsize character playing an outsize character” makes for a “delightful evening.”

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