The Cher Show- Page 10

Posted: 6/13/18 at 1:17pm

I stand corrected.  There were some, very minimal, references to Chaz (Cher complains to Sonny that the demanding work schedule he's concocted is keeping her from having time with her kid, for example).  But these references occupy no more than a minute or two at best of the entire show's long running time.  If there's time for entire scenes that revolve around Lucille Ball or Phil Spector or The Dave Clark Five, then there should be time in The Cher Show to focus at least a bit on her relationship with her children (especially her relationship with Chaz, perhaps, because he is a public figure and the difficulties Cher surmounted in accepting her child's gender reassignment could have provided some useful lessons to those members of the audience who haven't confronted the issue directly).  

The book does emphasize some of the sacrifices that fame and superstardom entail, but primarily in terms of its impact on her relationships with men.  Not much is made of how it impacted her relationship with her kids.  But perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that the show would not go "there."  As Elijah once pointed out:

 ‘Superstars are a difficult and unique breed. You have to be superficial to be a mega celebrity, you have to be… but who you are behind closed doors is really up you, there’s no cameras there.

‘Usually when there’s fame, there’s also brand of some sort, there’s also revenue. So whatever needs to be done to serve the generating of that revenue takes priority. I think that’s too big for anyone (famous) to escape.’  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2551939/Cher-never-congratulated-marriage-Elijah-Blue-reveals-rift-famous-mother-recovery-heroin-addiction-explosive-new-interview.html

The Cher Show is intended as pure entertainment.  Comfort food is harder to enjoy when it includes unknown ingredients that challenge the tastebuds.

 

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 01:17 PM

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 1:39pm

They were selling windowcards, magnets, coffee mugs, t-shirts and tote bags.  No souvenir programs yet...

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 1:56pm

Brief plot summary:

Act 1

The show opens with, who I presume, is Star sitting sewing a costume behind a scrim singing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (from Disney's Cinderella). We hear over the PA that the show is beginning. "Believe" starts to play (the audience went wild), and then as Star is to enter the number, she misses her entrance. They have the stage manager fill in for Star and dance the role with the ensemble.

Backstage, we see Babe (youngest Cher), Lady (young adult Cher), and Star surrounded by other Cher lookalikes (whom are never addressed). Cher haggles with the stage manager over how to start the show.

We go through Cher's childhood with Babe --namely how she was introduced to singing via Disney's Cinderella, her relationship with Georgia (her mother), and her mom's boyfriend leaving them.

Babe meets Sonny in a club and moves in with him. Sonny and Cher are strictly roommates, but Sonny gets jealous when Cher flirts with a man at a club. Babe's mom objects to them living together and pulls Babe out. As Babe moves out, Sonny realizes that she's something special. Her and her mother come to an agreement on the situation (off stage), and Babe moves in with Sunny. Babe's friends also move in (providing their costumes), and they move to London to find success. They appear on various TV shows and discover success in the UK.

 

They move to LA where fortune is less friendly to them until they make their way to Vegas, where they are approached by a producer to star in a prime time death slot. They eventually make it into the ratings top 10. Sonny controls Cher Enterprise, however, along with Babe's interactions with the band and micromanages her life. Cher learns that Sonny owns 95% of Cher Enterprise, and the lawyer owns the other 5%. She decides to leave him. 

Act 2

Lady is still performing on the Sonny and Cher show despite having left him behind the scenes. She meets Lucille Ball who convinces her that, yes, she can go on to her own show alone and find even more success there.

Lady meets her second husband, Gregg Allman. They have a child together, but Gregg is high on drugs. She leaves him, too. 

Cher auditions for a Broadway play and is convinced by the director that she has the heart for the part, despite her not being able to read or have acted before. She gets the part, but soon after leaves Broadway for Hollywood. Lady is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She does not win.

Star meets her boyfriend, Rob Camilletti, when she decides to pursue a younger man (he's 22 and she's 40) in a bar. He convinces her to take the role in Moonstruck. She wins the Academy Award, but Rob can't handle the paparazzi and attention. He beats up a paparazzo after their cars run Star's limo off the road. They part ways.

Star argues with the stage management over the structure of The Cher Show. They give her creative control, and they disappear from the narrative. 

Star gives the eulogy at Sonny's funeral and sings a ballad version of "Believe." Star has a breakdown with Babe and Lady because she can't keep a man when Georgia breaks up the hysteria. Georgia confesses to Star that she can also see the other Chers because a mother always recognizes her daughter, no matter where she is in her life. Georgia reaffirms to the Chers that "lovers come and go.... it's your teeth you need to hang on to." 

Babe, Lady, and Star look to the future --where the Chers promise each other to "Take Me Home" and "Believe."

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 01:56 PM

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 1:59pm

Merch for sale:

• T-Shirt (men and women, I believe)
• Hoodie
• Mug
• Keychain
• Window Card
• Tote Bag
• Magnet

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:07pm

I really like the reports, but I have to say that finishing the show in ''Believe'' is a sure thing to do.

 

Hasn't Cher done nothing in the last 20 years? Musically or as an actress, no.

 

If the show focus in her as an entertainer, the only thing Cher has done musically is the residencys... that uses her catalog as focus.

 

She hasn't done music (one or two albums that no one really cared), no TV show and the only movie she made was... Burlesque.

 

Cher's creativity carreer spans almost 4 decadas, from 60's to 90's. In those decades she did it all, all kinds of genres on music, tv and movie! But after 1998... not really. So, I really don't think there's a problem that the musical end there.

 

Her twitter? I mean, really?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:10pm

Star meets her third husband, Rob Camilletti. 

Cher was never married to Rob.  He was her famous "bagel boy" boyfriend in the 80s. 

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:12pm

My thoughts on the first preview below!

The Good:

This show has so, so, so much talent. All 3 Cher's are unbelievable. I honestly don’t know how their voices will hold up. Every bar is this show is beyond demanding. Each one hit every note and knocked it out of the park. 

There wasn’t much dancing in Act 1, but Act 2 made sure to really up the ante. Black Lady was really a highlight for the choreography. The audience was gasping at the moves they put Lady through.

COSTUMES –I know this has been said before, but I thought the building was going to erupt during the Act 1 Bob Mackie number. It was on the cusp of an ovation. I’m surprised they cut off the applause as early as they did because they could have milked minutes more of it.

The Bad:

The narrative truly needs to be addressed. There was no definition as to what exactly The Cher Show is at the top of the show. Is it a TV retrospective? If so, what’s the year? Is this happening in Cher’s head or her closet or some other heightened reality? It really took all of Act 1 to get stabilized to the pace and structure of the show, and by then the act ended.

There is so much more emotional content from Cher’s life (as mentioned, her relationship with Chaz) that is not leveraged in this show, and it’s a shame because there’s powerful storytelling to tap into there.

The plot moves SLOWWWWW. During intermission, my friend said to me, “Wow. I can’t believe Act 1 is over and Sonny is still alive.”

Many songs are partial songs. They go through a verse and one chorus and then they fizzle out just as you want more. Also, there are a LOT of book interruptions during songs. It’s destabilizing. 

Georgia – She was the weakest character by miles. Honestly, the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre songs with Georgia/Babe at the beginning coupled with this starry reunion at the end laughably parallel Bombshell/Smash.
 

The audience was terrible. I've never been to a world premiere before so I didn't know what to expect, but they were an unruly bunch. Lots of applause interruption in songs before they ended (please wait for the "button," especially when it's an emotional number like the Believe ballad). Many in attendance wore Cher t-shirts and were clearly big fans, but it was distracting at moments. 

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 02:12 PM

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:22pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Star meets her third husband, Rob Camilletti.

Cher was never married to Rob. He was her famous "bagel boy" boyfriend in the 80s."

My bad! I knew nothing about Cher before this show besides her music. I updated the summary. Thanks!

[StylishCynic]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:27pm

Stray observations:

A woman a few rows ahead of me in the Dress Circle had a Cher Barbie doll with her. I'm not joking! It was straight out of Will & Grace.

Georgia's line "lovers come and go... it's yer teeth you need to hang on to!" seemed to be a direct knock-off of Madame Arnfeldt's line from A Little Night Music: "To lose a husband or a lover, or two, during one's lifetime can be vexing - but to lose one's teeth... is a catastrophe!" It was a little too close for comfort, IMO.

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:40pm

One need only look at the Wikipedia entry for Cher to see that she achieved many goals and set records in the time period after Sonny's death.  In the last twenty years, she earned an Emmy, set records for highest grossing concert tours by a female artist, became the only singer to have chart-topping singles in each decade from the 60's to the current decade, and achieved her highest ranking as a solo artist on Billboard's Hot 200 chart.  

As was pointed out already, the introductory scenes that have Norma Jean and her mother (oooops...Bernadette Peters and Megan Hilty's young stand-in....oooops...Cher and Georgia) in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre was a cliche'...but from a narrative perspective, the show could easily have bookended this with a more up-to-date closing scene than the eulogy:  in 2010, Cher finally immortalized her handprints at Grauman's. 

The story of how Cher achieved all these late-career successes and accepted her status as an icon...WITHOUT Sonny's guidance and without romantic entanglements...would have made for a more empowering ending. 

It is perhaps telling that one of the biggest applauses from the audience came in the second act when Star Cher takes the mic away from Lady or Babe Cher and announces that she's waited long enough to take over from the other two.  The audience clearly felt the same way.  They came to see The Cher Show.  Far too much time is spent on The Sonny and Cher Story.

 

 

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 02:40 PM

[Robbie2]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:45pm

Marlothom said: "Just got out and I thought it was truly a great effort for a first preview. Again, really great effort in making the three Chers work as one, smart placements of the songs, breath taking costumes, and overall great talent. I loved the use of costume racks as part of the set in Act 1.

They will definitely need to cut some of this down and I hope they opt for cutting entire songs and extending some other songs, instead of shorter versions of as many songs as possible. I'd love to hear a fuller version of the Act 1 closer, "Song for the Lovely" for example,

I suspect some tourist will wonder why no one is doing "the Cher voice" (I heard it from some during intermission). I will be honest that as great as Teal Wicks is as "Lady" Cher, she looks nothing like her and is too short for all of the jokes that are made about her being taller than Sonny. I also wish Stephanie's Cher was a tad older and had bigger hair. I really enjoyed Jarrod Spector andEmily Skinner in their supporting roles and hope they are recognized during awards season.

"

 

Cher is 5'9...SJB is 5'9 but Teal Wicks is 5'6 and the weakest of the 3.

Sonny was 5'5  - Jarrod is taller than Teal

A friend saw it and said it needs at least 30 minutes to be cut and the pacing is slow and the structure of the whole show needs sharpening. He suggested the show needs a better director with more musical theater experience to shape and focus the show! Act 1 needs more choreography but the fashion show showcasing Mackie's costumes is beyond breathtaking! SJB is stealing the show.

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 02:45 PM

[CukorLover]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:48pm

Eleonora Duse said: "One need only look at the Wikipedia entry for Cher to see that she achieved many goals and set records in the time period after Sonny's death. In the last twenty years, she earned an Emmy, set records for highest grossing concert tours by a female artist, became the only singer to have chart-topping singers in each decade from the 60's to the current decade, and achieved her highest ranking as a solo artist on Billboard's Hot 200 chart.

As was pointed out already, the introductory scenes that have Norma Jean and her mother (oooops...Cher and Georgia) in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre was a cliche'...but from a narrative perspective, the show could easily have bookended this with a more up-to-dateclosing scene than the eulogy: in 2010, Cher finally immortalized her handprints at Grauman's.

The story of how Cher achieved all these late-career successes and accepted her status as an icon...WITHOUT Sonny's guidance and without romantic entanglements...would have made for a more empowering ending.

It is perhaps telling that one of the biggest applauses from the audience came in the second act when Star Cher takes the mic away from Lady or Babe Cher and announces that she's waited long enough to take over from the other two. The audience clearly felt the same way. They came to see The Cher Show. Far too much time is spent on The Sonny and Cher Story.



Thank you both Stylishcynic and Elenora! Those were the types of reviews I was looking for. Reminded me of the more fleshed-out type of comments from good 'ole Whizzer.

Naturally, they'll edit and trim it down it down before it hits Broadway. Do either of you think this has the potential of a "Jersey Boys" or "Mama Mia" long term success? Just curious as I know it had a high capitalization (18-19 million). Mostly which would go for music rights, and I assume the costume budget--can you imagine the cleaning bills?

From most of the posts from last night  it seems to be a better show than "Summer" --and even the disco queen is bringing in a million a week.

Thanks!

 

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 02:48 PM

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 2:58pm

Eleonora Duse said: "One need only look at the Wikipedia entry for Cher to see that she achieved many goals and set records in the time period after Sonny's death. In the last twenty years, she earned an Emmy, set records for highest grossing concert tours by a female artist, became the only singer to have chart-topping singles in each decade from the 60's to the current decade, and achieved her highest ranking as a solo artist on Billboard's Hot 200 chart.
"

Again, I can't agree this would be a good thing to put on the show. I don't know if there's any way to put this unless you put another actress to go beyond 90's

 

She earned an Emmy for the live recording of her tour, how is that ''artiscally'' relevant?

 

She hasn't had a hit after ''Believe'' and the the #1 songs in the Dance Charts, that means basically nothing, were even used in the show as it's stated that Song of the Lonely is featured.

 

How do you put that her last album was #3 on BB200? As a image on the LED screen?

 

Her achieves after ''Believe'' are really good to her because personally she became an ICON (mainly because Believe brought her back), but I can't imagine how to insert a sold out tour in a musical would give any really good improvement on the show.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:02pm

Jason Moore is hardly an inexperienced musical theatre director.

[Elegance101]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:04pm

Is there anyone playing young Sonny or is Michaela put opposite Jarrod? Bc that seems...weird.

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:09pm

MadsonMelo said: 


Her achieves after ''Believe'' are really good to her because personally she became an ICON (mainly because Believe brought her back), but I can't imagine how to insert a sold out tour in a musical would give any really good improvement on the show."

I think one way to highlight all the late career achievements might be to include something in which Star Cher has to confront head-on the issue of aging.  I'm sure that there is drama in the story of how a woman who is increasingly older maintains her stamina and her mental health as some of the attributes that define her begin to falter.  Her plastic surgery, and how it also impacted her screen career, could have given rise to some interesting thought-provoking scenes.  But, again, this is not the kind of show that THE CHER SHOW aspires to.  It really is just a juke box musical intent on entertaining the audience by triggering nostalgic feelings for the older segment of the audience and fun music and fashion for those who aren't completely familiar with Star Cher's backstory.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:11pm

What's the exactly time that general public ticket will be available to buy on the 18th?

[Elegance101]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:12pm

If they wanted to go past 1998, they'd probably have to hire another actress to play her as even older.

Also, the show is already apparently over-long, we shouldn't be adding an extra 20 years.

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 3:31pm

MadsonMelo said: "What's the exactly time that general public ticket will be available to buy on the 18th?"

10 a.m.

[FanofGreen]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 4:23pm

I just received an email with access to purchase tix for NY - advanced access via Starwood Preferred Guest Rewards membership.  It came from Audience Rewards.  Not sure how that is linked to SPG.

Updated On: 6/13/18 at 04:23 PM

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 4:29pm

The Audience Rewards member presale is on now, as well.

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 5:07pm

Eleonora Duse said: "I stand corrected.  There were some, very minimal, references to Chaz (Cher complains to Sonny that the demanding work schedule he's concocted is keeping her from having time with her kid, for example).  But these references occupy no more than a minute or two at best of the entire show's long running time.  If there's time for entire scenes that revolve around Lucille Ball or Phil Spector or The Dave Clark Five, then there should be time in The Cher Show to focus at least a bit on her relationship with her children (especially her relationship with Chaz, perhaps, because he is a public figure and the difficulties Cher surmounted in accepting her child's gender reassignment could have provided some useful lessons to those members of the audience who haven't confronted the issue directly) "

I forgot that this bothered me quite a bit too. Anyone would expect that the story of her life would include her children, but there was only one brief mention of "Chaz" and one scene where she is holding infant Elijah, but not another word about them. This is a big piece of who she is that is just weirdly ignored.

 

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 5:34pm

StylishCinic said: "The audience was terrible. I've never been to a world premiere before so I didn't know what to expect, but they were an unruly bunch. Lots of applause interruption in songs before they ended (please wait for the "button," especially when it's an emotional number like the Believe ballad). Many in attendance wore Cher t-shirts and were clearly big fans, but it was distracting at moments."

I am very sorry that you have never been to a world premiere of a musical before, but this is "The Cher Show".  She is one of the most popular music artists for over 50 years.  She has maintained our attention by not following everyone else's rules but her own.  I wore a Cher concert t-shirt last night and everyone that sat around me seemed perfectly behaved.  I do not see how wearing clothing becomes distracting when you are supposed to watching the stage.

 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 7:24pm

check it out:

https://www.instagram.com/bitches_save_the_cher/?hl=en

 

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 6/13/18 at 7:43pm

Great photo album on Instagram!  I have been a Cher fan since I was a very small child.  The show last night was very entertaining, but is far from the best show I have ever seen.  The highlight for me was the first act tribute to Bob Mackie.  Seeing all of those iconic costumes I remember from watching "Sonny and Cher" as a kid gave me chills.  The first act was better than the second act because the second act was mired in too much melodrama.  The second act needs to end with a mini concert showing how Cher can still bring people to their feet at 72 years old.  That would leave the audience on such an incredibly high that they will float out of the theatre rather than walking out...