Tupac Shakur or Bette Davis? I Vote for Bette

On Sunday night, the late Tupac Shakur performed "live" in concert with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Resurrecting the rapper, who died in 1996 after being shot in Las Vegas, was accomplished by special digital effects from Digital Domain, the company that made Brad Pitt look old and ugly in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Tupac's likeness was projected onto a piece of glass on the concert stage, which then bounced the image onto a Mylar screen. Apparently, the effect was awesome: Through technological magic, Tupac was alive and well and singing to his fans once again.

My first thought was: Look at those abs. Tupac should've changed his name to Sixpac.

Sixpac Shakur

Then I thought: Who else would I like to see, digitally resurrected from the dead and interjected into a live performance?

Bette Davis, for starters. Let's say you're watching a Broadway play, and there's a scene in which two pretentious characters start speaking French to one another. Suddenly, in vivid black and white, there's Bette Davis, as Margo Channing in All About Eve, quipping "Enchante to you, too!" That would perk the audience up.

Bette Davis in All About Eve

In fact, you could make a hologram Bette Davis a recurring gag on Broadway. Audiences would never know when or where Bette might appear and make a bitchy remark. In Death of a Salesman, now running on Broadway, Bette from The Little Foxes could suddenly materialize and say coldly to Philip Seymour Hoffman: "I hope you die. I hope you die soon. I'll be waiting for you to die."

Or how about this? Immediately after a love scene in a play, suddenly there's Bette from Of Human Bondage, shrieking contemptuously: "After ya kissed me, I always used to wipe my mouth! WIPE MY MOUTH!"

I'll say it first: hologram Bette Davis = viral sensation. 

Some other late, great, dearly missed performers I'd love to see 'live' on stage, in no particular order:

* John Gielgud, from Arthur

John Gielgud

* Dixie Carter, from Designing Women

Dixie Carter

* Marty Feldman, from Young Frankenstein

Marty Feldman

* Madeleine Kahn, from any movie she ever made

Madeleine Kahn

* Edward G. Robinson, from any movie he ever made but particularly Key Largo

Edward G. Robinson

* Joan Crawford, in her circus performing drag from Berserk! Imagine Joan suddenly popping up in a Cirque du Soleil show.

Joan Crawford in Berserk!

Your turn. Which performer(s) would you love to see resurrected again on stage?