SUPERSTARS COME AND GO.
CHER IS FOREVER.
For six straight decades, only one unstoppable force has flat-out dominated popular culture - breaking down barriers, pushing boundaries, and letting nothing and no one stand in her way. The Cher Show is her story, and it's packed with so much Cher that it takes three women to play her: the kid starting out, the glam pop star and the icon.
The Cher Show is 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, a Grammy, an Oscar, an Emmy, and enough Bob Mackie gowns to cause a sequins shortage in New York City, all in one unabashedly fabulous new musical.
Jason Moore directs, with choreography by Christopher Gattelli and orchestrations by Daryl Waters.
Granted, the jukebox musical that opened on Broadway Monday night has some clumsy and dopey dialogue. The story - a 50-50 mix of narration (yawn) and not-quite-skin-deep dramatization - tracing the pop goddess' personal and professional ups and downs won't surprise those with even a passing knowledge of Cher. Or access to Wikipedia. Still, it's thrilling watching the 72-year-old diva's rags-to-riches-and-back-again life woven by wall-to-wall hits - 'Bang Bang,' 'The Beat Goes On,' 'Half-Breed' and 'Believe,' among them.
Is the show good? Certainly not in the sense of traditional musical-theater craft. Would I see it again? Duh, already planning on it. Director Jason Moore's production, which breaks new frontiers on Broadway for bare midriffs, underboobs, wigs and paillettes, unashamedly embraces its abundance of trashy-flashy, tacky vintage-Vegas kitsch. But it's also slyly fabulous and imbued with a plucky feminist spirit that's quite stirring, basically recounting the story of how the innately shy Cherilyn Sarkisian stopped letting men tell her what to do and found the strength to run her own show.
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