Facebook & Twitter Make Bette Midler ‘Nervous’ to Return to Broadway in Mame or Hello, Dolly!

OK, Internet haters, you win. You’ve officially scared one of Broadway’s biggest talents to the point that she’s afraid to return to the Great White Way. Nice job. For ages, stage and screen legend Bette Midler has been rumored to be returning to Broadway in a musical—specifically Mame or Hello, Dolly! But the superstar revealed to The Los Angeles Times that it’s not the giant roles that are keeping her away from these two dream projects…it’s Facebook, Twitter and message boards.

“[I’m] nervous about the social media part of it,” she told The L.A. Times. “I don’t like to put myself in harm’s way.” The star also admits that she finds the idea of leading a big cast equally intimidating. “These shows are great, big bears. It’s a lot of new people, and I’m not good anymore at remembering who is who,” she said. “I don’t know about a show of 30 people and choreographers shrieking.”

For now, Midler is content to have the stage all to herself, playing super-agent Sue Mengers in John Logan’s I’ll Eat You Last. The Divine Miss M is reprising the larger-than-life role she played on Broadway last season, for which she won a Broadway.com Audience Choice Award. Catch Midler starring alongside—oh wait, just her—at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, through December 22.