There are few styles of musicals more contradictory than a jukebox musical. On the one hand, it’s a perfect advertisement for already recognizable music that will likely draw the audience in. Getting to listen to talented performers belt out classics for three hours is often a pleasure. However, the irony of a Broadway stage is that only the most unique of subjects can really thrive in a jukebox setting. Many have told their stories with conventional plot formatting that undercuts any personal innovation and delineates the icons to something more of caricature. In the case of The Cher Show, the answer lies somewhere towards the middle. It finds what’s brilliant about the music icon whose career has spanned over 60 years, though it’s sometimes unclear what makes her journey fully unique.
Deep down, this is a recognizable story of an underdog who starts as a goofy outcast and slowly finds her audience. There’s love and loss along the way and the final moments are largely triumphant. In fact, the dialogue leading into the closing number feels more like a wink to an expecting audience than a culmination of ideas. This could simply be because The Cher Show paints their hero as someone of the utmost strength. She doesn’t let insults get to her and instead finds ways to laugh it off. As a result, part of the show’s appeal is watching Cher do comedy schtick as we wait for the next number to kick in.
In fact, it’s how the show starts. For as much as the remaining plot slides in and out of conventions, there is something magnetic about watching Cher navigate the stage. She has that risqué humor as her back-up dancers do suggestive moves. It’s pure camp even as it transitions into a front to back retelling of her life. In anyone’s hands, a 30-year narrative would be difficult to properly portray (just ask Merrily We Roll Along). However, there’s a brilliance to how it’s handled here with Cher being portrayed at three different points of her career.
Not only that, but this is one of the most impressive fourth-wall breaking gimmicks in modern theater. Each one possesses a little more confidence than the last. The oldest, and most recognizable, Cher works as a guide from scene to scene. She’ll spend entire sequences watching her younger self from afar with a mix of criticism and love. At points the script flips in interesting directions and plays into what theater’s best at. Every Cher gets to intervene with a different era’s personal affairs. It’s comical and sometimes woefully tragic, but it also leads to some fantastic harmonies between the three as they capture what essentially feels like Cher’s soul on stage.
A lot of the greatest hits are here both literally and figuratively. Act I centers largely around her time with Sonny Bono as she moves to California and starts The Sonny & Cher Show. The audience watches her learn comedy and befriends designer Bob Mackie. In one musical number, the supporting cast dances around the stage in some of the most lavish outfits seen on a stage in years. Even if they’re mere references, the boastful nature only enhances how much of a showman Cher remains. Her flamboyance shines through as she emerges behind the dancers like it was a Busby Berkley number with an even greater outfit. The changes happen so quickly that it challenges the viewer not to blink. It happens so fast that one can’t help but admire the art of costume changes that go down in the span of five minutes.
Meanwhile Act II emphasizes more on her achieving independence. There’s the Post-Bono boyfriends as well as her film career. It’s also the point where the show really ties in the emotions and every odd technique comes together. The Cher Show does an excellent job of repurposing the classic numbers into contexts around her life. There’s even scenes that feel like they retool the melodies and genres to add deeper emotion to the performance. It’s a big, shameless spectacle and the emotions are projected to the back of the room. If you love Cher, this is a dream come true. She rises triumphantly and makes the quasi-nonsensical finale more of a celebration than it has any right to be.
Credit to the exceptional cast. The three Cher’s are especially fantastic with the eldest one often being able to draw the line between tough love and vulnerability. For a figure who has withstood the test of time against all odds, this rendition of her tale is fantastic and serves as a beautiful tribute to what she has given. Is it occasionally cornball? Yes. However, the book (written by the team that created the gold standard musical biopic Jersey Boys) does so much to not let this fall into self-parody. Instead it emphasizes the humanity and creates moments that endear viewers both familiar with her work as well as those who have no idea who Gregg Allman was. It may play better to the former, but this is far from a pandering work.
This was also the first show to be held at the newly reopened Long Beach Terrace. While the city has been renowned as a place for live theater, this is a venue that prides itself on landing professional touring productions. As a result, their entryway was ceremonious with a live DJ and various photo booths. While the show itself was never overshadowed, those who dressed either in bright striped 70s print or Cher t-shirts and talking about witnessing the real deal were welcomed. It’s the type of event that makes one hope that their upcoming season can compare to a beginning this strong. Here’s hoping that, like one of Cher’s later hits, they’ll be able to say “You haven’t seen the last of me” when it comes time for next year’s subscriptions.
Meanwhile, The Cher Show doesn’t fully escape the limits of the jukebox musical. Sometimes it does feel like numbers exist solely for entertainment. Even then, when you have a cast who are this fun to watch and a supporting cast who dazzle in costumes and dance with finesse, is that totally a bad thing? It’s a show that hits every emotion and proves that there’s something in the familiar that’s worth exploring. Cher remains a one of a kind performer who carries so much of a legacy everywhere she goes. If this is all you’ll know of her (though hopefully not), then it’ll be time well spent. It’s more than a simple glorification. It’s an appreciation that gets to the heart of why she will always be seen as a pop music icon.
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