If Im being completely honest, fitting six decades of a career into 2.5 hours likely takes a lot of pains and liberties about what to cut and what to elaborate.
While it could seem like trans* erasure at face value (and yes, this is a major problem), I don’t think the writers and producers were like “Oh, let’s just cut him completely out” out of malice. Additionally, this final product was approved by Cher herself.
I honestly would love to see Chaz do a one-man show or write a play about it. He is the only one who could do his story justice.
First he was omitted at the request of Cher herself, as she felt like it was his story to tell not hers. Second Chaz didn’t come out as a lesbian until 1995, and Trans until 2008. Considering the only major career achievement for Cher after either of these announcements was Believe in 1998. So yes Chaz is Cher’s son, but his transition had little to do with his mother’s 6 decade long career filled with numerous achievements that had to be boiled down to a 2.5 hr musical.
I am sure if and when Chaz wants to tell his story and if he wants to tell it as a jukebox musical his mother would happily let him use her catalog under the same licensing conditions as The Cher Show. If I were Chaz though I’d rather have original music and lyrics telling my story as it was instead of trying to shoe horn some of my parents catalog to fit my story.
Privacy. Chaz's life is not Cher's and my guess is Cher wants to respect that. The children of celebrities often want distance from that and this show is about what made Cher a celebrity.
I saw the show this past weekend and noticed that Chaz was always referred to as "Chaz" never Chasity. The blanket was blue (not pink). No reference to any female pronouns. Mostly "my child".
Her life is HUGE, it would be like Wagner's Ring Cycle--4 nights at 3 hours each to tell her entire life story.
They focused on her rise to stardom and then ended with Believe and the tours, which really were just the finale.
It is Chaz's story to tell and I think they handled it well by using proper pronouns and just omitting having a little girl be on stage during the TV show parts.
joined:1/28/04
joined:
1/28/04
Posted: 12/4/18 at 12:29pm