FULL DISCLOSURE: There are those of you who may think that me reviewing The Cher Show would render a review as impartial as me reviewing my daughter’s Broadway debut. There are others who know that The Cher Show in New York was maybe my most perfect day of theatre in my life, when my daughter won first row tickets to see my favorite Broadway star play my favorite pop icon in a story that is basically the soundtrack of my life–on my birthday. And I admit that might be suspect. However, consider my bias thus: I am the mere counterbalance to the rest of the rude and arrogant press who have reduced this legendary performer with 60 years atop the Billboard charts to a joke, and a lame one at that. In the immortal words of the icon herself at the top of her improbably titled Farewell Tour (there have been two others to follow, plus a Vegas residency), “Follow this, you bitches….”
Micaela Diamond, Stephanie J. Block, and Teal Wicks in THE CHER SHOW, New York
photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
The media has never taken her seriously. She’s been the punch line to hundreds of media jokes over the decades. The Academy Awards denied her a nomination for perhaps her greatest performance on film in Mask, because they determined she “wasn’t a serious actress”. Likewise, the self-important New York critics were poised to pounce and sink this show before it opened. Their reviews were utter nonsense and showed complete ignorance of her landmark career (see my rebuttal review to them here) and the ever shitty Tony Award Committee blackballed the show in every category except the only two they absolutely couldn’t without baring their hand—lead actress Stephanie J. Block and costume designer Bob Mackie, who both won. The rest of the production and the cast suffered from the usual Cher-by-association.
The sad news is the show is significantly more than Block and Mackie, and the good news is the bulk of that transferred with the national tour, which itself has an unfortunate story. Set to launch major venues spring of 2021, a little thing called Covid sidelined it a year and a half and the original tour was canceled. A few regional theatres in the northeast purchased the Broadway sets and costumes and played full scale runs, and this is the basis of the scaled down bus and truck touring company playing 1-3 night engagements throughout the US til at least mid 2023. And this tour, as disrespected as the original by the thoroughly unoriginal media elite (shocking), is actually stellar, a symbolic testament to life after love. The audience at the Strand Theatre was as enthusiastic as if they were at an actual Cher rock concert, which at times the show honestly feels like.
This review is by necessity a little different in nature. I have to not only give a critique, but I have to undo all the other negative, misinformed, lazy, and flat-out incompetent reviews by the guys who get the big bucks to be snobby. First of all, the Broadway production got criticized for its “uninspired title”. Any critic who paid a second’s attention would realize that Tony-nomiated writer Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter & the Starcatcher, not for The Cher Show) creates a clever book here where 3 parallel universe versions of Cher, young, hopeful 1960’s Sonny & Cher recording era Cher (Ella Perez), 1970s TV show, Bob Mackie icon era Cher (Catherine Ariale), and older and wiser 80s “If I Could Turn Back Time” era through today Cher (Morgan Scott) interact with each other in the context of the TV variety show format that made Cher an icon. When Fosse framed Chicago in the device of a vaudeville show that the jazz era murder is set in, it was witty and clever. When Catch Me If You Can used the structure of a variety talk show because the antagonist was pretty much an attention whore who loved to tell his story, it was kitchy nostalgia. When Elice does it for Cher, it’s result “lazy and uninspired title”, not understanding the concept and the basic fact that The Cher Show is the totle of the variety show during which we are watching her life unfold (not to mention the actual title of one of the four variety shows she headlined in the 70s). This format gives Elice a lot of storytelling flexibility to introduce supporting characters as “guest stars”, let the three Chers converse with each other like the hosts did, and allow for the occasional spotlight musical number to feature the bulk of her impressive 60+ year catalog of chart topping hits. And allowing them to converse is a much more interesting and audience friendly form of delivering exposition than just face forward and talk, as the lesser book of another jukebox musical, Ain’t Too Proud, which did garner a Tony nomination that year.
Starting at the top, the pivotal trios of Chers are perfect representatives of each incarnation they represent. Morgan Scott as contemporary Cher gets the show off to a lively start with a through-the-ages version of megahit “If I Could Turn Back Time”. Even after she introduces her costars Ariale and Perez, it is clear that Scott, in Block’s Tony-winning role, is most in control of the evening. But Ariale and Perex are a good match for her, and their conversations between wiser Cher and her younger selves have some whimsical moments. Upon their introduction, a wide-eyed optimistic Perez admires Scott and compliments herself in awe, “I look good! And I do not age!” After the Chers comfort Ariale when she decides to leave Sonny (after finding their contract with CBS gives Sonny 95% of the profits, their lawyers 5%, and Cher nothing) in a rousing first act finale of “Song for the Lonely”, when Ariale doubts herself before carrying it out in the second act, questioning “How will Sonny feel?”, Scott cuts her off, “Honey, we just sang a whole song about that.”
Scott is a strong guiding presence for her younger counterparts, and the most convincing of the three. She also gets most of the stage time to sell her act. Perez is adorable as the wide-eyed, optimistic and occasionally intimidated version who can’t believe her childhood dreams are coming true, faking us out with a bright airy voice as 6-year-old Cher singing Disney tunes, but shows us all of Cher’s full-voiced tessitura when she begins singing as an upcoming pop singer. Ariale nails glam Cher and possesses the body, elegance, and attitude to pull off the dozens of nude illusory Bob Mackie creations patterned after actual Cher costumes. Her TV show banter with Sonny is spot on (from someone who was there every week 6 inches from the screen). All three of them have the mannerisms and cadences of Cher’s distinct persona throught the eras down pat without resorting to any form of impression or parody of her, a trap most others fall into. The three peak together at the soft closing is the show, picking herself up as she’s had to numerous times to prepare for her farewell tour with a glorious 3-part arrangement of Diane Warren’s “You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me” from Burlesque, the Golden Globe winning song that wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar because, Cher-by-association
Lorenzo Pugliese literally stops the show with his entrance as a perfectly csat, original short king Sonny Bono. He gains rigorous applause when we first hear him speak in Bono’s distinctive voice, and even more midsong when he sings his iconic first lines in “I Got You Babe”. Pugliese also is successful in making a convincing transition from adorable new boyfriend to ambitious Svangali husband to betraying business partner, without losing the audience because he also channels Bono’s easy, charming demeanor.
Tyler Pirrult has a string of fun cameos, most notably as fashion designer extraordinaire Bob Mackie, who basically created, packaged, and delivered the Cher we know into our living rooms every week, and director Robert Altman, who gave her her Broadway debut in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean.
As is the routine these post-Covid days, three understudies went on in the remaining featured roles and executed their roles with ease. At this performance, Liz Davis took on the pivotal role of Georgia Holt, Cher’s ever supportive mother, Gary Paul Bowman added some rockabilly flair as rebound husband Gregg Allman, and Charles Blaha filled in Bowman’s usual role as 80s boyfriend, “bagel boy” Rob Camaletti.
Davis gets the story off to convincing and solid start despite having to lead off with the riskiest number of the show, somehow avoiding all potential PC pitfalls by delivering Halfbreed sweetly and sincerely (with a few minimal lyric adjustments and slight artistic license), with all the maternal wisdom and warmth it must have taken to raise young Cherilyn Sakasian to be the icon she is. She only falters slightly in a second act cameo appearance as Lucille Ball, who offers a struggling Cher some experienced advice on divorcing your co-star and business partner, but remaining on top. “This time.” Ball advises her, “your won’t just be above the title. You’ll be the title…Always worked for me.” Davis has all of Ball’s familiar syntax and mannerisms, but her youth denies her the ability to locate the distinctly raspy, cigarette voice that was 1970s Lucy.
Bowman has a fun time with Allman (a nice contrast to his cameo as one of Cher’s stand-in, disappearing fathers at the top of the show), and not only has a great, Southern gentlemanly rapport wooing Scott’s Cher on her last solo variety show, but gets the ultimate featured moment of the show with Pugliese, when the two deliver a surprise highlight, the inspired use of “Dark Lady” as a musical battle over their mutual love interest. (“We all know there’s nothing I like more than when two men get to decide who gets me,” quips a deadpan Scott.) Elice re-envisions their vocal sparring within the context the ultimate 70s variety show production number (if you haven’t figured out how the concept works yet—but don’t worry, the other “critics” still haven’t.) Odd as it sounds, the lyrics actually wrap themselves around the conceit. Allman: “They say the girl you love is secretly true to someone else who is very close to you.” Bono: “My advice is that you leave this place, never come back, and forget you ever saw her face.”) Special credit goes to Emma Jade Branson (in perfect, minimalistic Mackie Cher Show drag) being the superglue that holds the idea together with her limber and precise execution of the elaborate dance as the title character.
And Blaha is charming as the down-to-earth Camaletti, doting on his superstar girlfriend despite their age difference (they met at her 40th birthday party at Studio 54—he was 23). The pair also flawlessly recreate the video of “I Found Someone”. He’s also sweet in his second cameo as an enamored production assistant on her last variety show whose fawning good nature doesn’t go unnoticed by Cher, who is learning to stand up for herself and her image.
Technically, I was happy to see this show was vitually the same as what I fell in love with in New York. Most critically, all the deluxe, luminous, sequin-studded Bob Mackie recreations of every iconic look that ever made Cher “Cher” is intact. The “If I Could Turn Back Time” barely-there sequin leotard, the Met gala barely-there nude illusion rhinestone and feathered Time cover gown, all three important Oscar gowns (including the infamous “serious actress handbook” dress), many recreations form The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and, to this critic, the most important—the Vamp dress, which was the best 15 minutes of any given show. Mackie is such an instrumental figure in Cher’s story both in her life and on stage, he even gets a showstopping set-piece which starts out with a routine costume fitting with Cher for the TV show, and the ensuing battle with the censors on how much flesh she can show, proceeds with he and Ariale plotting to get away with as much as they can (Mackie: “Cher can wear anything!” Cher: “Better than that, I can wear nothing.”), and culminates in an extended full-company production number that becomes a virtual fashion week runway spectacle devoted to the many looks he’s created over the years for her for TV shows, concerts, magazine covers, Hollywood events, and album covers—even Scott in a comical appearance amongst the high drama as Cher’s tacky, lovable alter-ego Laverne from he sketch show
Only Kelly James Tighe scales his set design down minimally from Christine Jones & Brett Banakis’ New York designs, relying more on panels and projections then the LED screens from the initial incarnation. But Tighe gets good mileage out of his projections and they occasionally serve the staging a little better, as in the Oscar montage where they provide cool silhouettes of each dress before we see them step into the spotlight. Tighe also teams up with Johnathan Infante for all the varied video projection designs to adorn his panel screens and they all carry the era and the mood of the required look. And let me be precise, when I say they are scaled down, I mean by like 5-10 % max. They’re still better than most touring jukebox sets. And even Tighe’s scaled down sets are more impressive than the Tony nominated plywood and picnic tables from Oklahoma—even with the chili.
Light Designer Charlie Morrison uplifts the visuals with everything from casual scene lighting, to intense TV show lighting, to special effect video and dramatic concert lighting. Whatever medium whatever Cher is working in at whatever scene, Morrison goes all out.
Mackie gets a strong assist from inspired wig designer Roxanne de Luna, who adds almost as much to the iconic looks as Mackie does. When the average hour-long variety show contained 10 or so wigs for Cher, de Luna gives us 50 years’ worth in 2 ½ hours.
And for the most part, Daniel Lundberg provides clear sound which varies not only from conversation to concert, but also nails the specially featured iconic “autotune” effect (given its own scene) which resurrected Cher’s career for a new millenium with the “Believe” sound.
Director Casey Hushion restages Jason Moore’s New York show well, making alterations where needed to fit Tighe’s set adjustments and varying touring house demands. But the heart of the show and the relationships between the three Chers is still intact, as is the clear struggle she faces with men who let her down every step of the way until she triumphs as a strong singular legend.
Choreographer Antoinette Dipietropolo does an excellent job of restaging Christopher Gatelli’s impressive New York dances, for which he was blackballed from a Tony nomination. The whole show moves beautifully, most notably in the Vegas montage where Sonny & Cher emerge as a comedy team amidst bursts of leggy Mackie-clad, bead-and-feathered showgirls and the most inspired number of that Broadway season (and most any since), “Dark Lady”—yet the ever shitty Tony crew gave the final choreography nomination to a straight play.
I can’t say enough about Rick Elice’s overlooked superior book. If his Tony-nominated Jersey Boys is the gold standard of jukebox musicals or bio-musicals, his work here is no less than silver and, in my opinion, platinum. The idiot NY critics stated dividing Cher up into 3 characters is “subtractive of the experience”. I maintain it is multiplicative, even exponentially. As they converse among themselves as three different viewpoints of Cher based in three different ages of her life experience, we get a deeper understanding of who the elusive, strong, independent Cher is. We see the way she was stifled by Sonny and the male-dominated Hollywood machine in her formative years. When Cher complains about the inferior writing (also by men) in the cheesy scripts (“How many dumb blondes can I play?”), she is brushed off as a nuisance (“Just wear the clothes, say the lines, and we’ll find out”) by the stand-in for all the forgotten directors in her wake. Elise even got blasted for the lame sitcom humor in the show, when he was obviously replicating and skewering just that, as Cher points out multiple times throughout in words and eyerolls. He covers her insecurities, her oppression by men and Hollywood, her blossoming confidence under Mackie’s watchful gaze, her struggles with changing times and chronic fatigue syndrome (which forced her to turn down leading roles in Thelma & Louise and The War of the Roses), a sweet tribute to her touching eulogy at Sonny’s funeral, and the unique almost phoenix-like ways that she keeps coming back and reinventing herself as the industry tries to shove her aside.
If there is a flaw in his treatment of her life story, and I mean a minor surface crack, it’s that he doesn’t bring her story to a clear close, opting to fade into a finale of her never-ending “Farewell” Tour. But with a subject who is still with us, as history has shown us, Cher’s story isn’t done. At the age of 77 just two months ago, Cher made history when her first ever Christmas album gave her her latest #1 Billboard Hit, “DJ Play a Christmas Song”, making her the first artist in history to have a #1 hit in seven straight decades. So I’ll cut Elice the appropriate slack on that critique. Because like the legend herself, The Cher Show keeps reinventing itself and entertaining new audiences for hopefully a never-ending farewell tour. Catch it now at a stop near you. The beat goes on……. #YouHaventSeenTheLastOfMe
All photos courtesy of Meredith Mashburn Photography
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
The Cher Show, a Big League production, currently tours through June 16, 2023, with the next local stop being the Capital One Center in Tysons, VA, 7750 Capital One Tower Road
Tysons, VA 22102 . For schedule and tickets, purchase online at https://thechershowtour.com/#tour