The Cher Show — Page 20

CarlosAlberto said: "Valentina3 said: "CarlosAlberto said: "



That's a very homophobic picture of Cher

Explain to me just how in the world this particular photo of Cher is homophobic?

"

I think/hope Valentina3 meant to say "photogenic". Spellcheck error?

Sho-Tunes-R-Us, and Carlos - it wasn't a typo. It's a popular internet meme calling bad pictures of gay icons homophobic (example - RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 lighting with only purples and blues is often called homophobic by reddit). Cher's somewhat harsh makeup and lighting in that picture don't make it very flattering, which is what I was trying to joke about but I guess it didn't translate well so apologies.

I saw the show on Friday and was thrilled when I realized I was watching two alums of Side Show as a couple in The Cher Show. The characters Georgia Holt (Emily Skinner - Daisy '97) and John Southall (Matthew Hydzik - Buddy '14) get married. A special addition to my night.

Final performance today at 2. Start time delayed. The house should have opened 30 minutes ago. Ushers waiting for production to give green light to open doors.

Updated On: 7/15/18 at 02:47 PM

Last night, there was a technical issue with the LED walls during the curtain call. They didn't move in and effectively blocked the principal actors from entering to take their bows (at least, that's what I think happened). After the ensemble bowed, there was a good 30-40 seconds of an empty stage, lights flashing, orchestra playing - the Chers then came on to sing the "Believe" finale and Stephanie starts the song with "what am I supposed to do - LITERALLY!" :)

Not a chance, Cher is in London right now doing press for "Mamma Mia"...

Very good but short 4 numbers in mostly street clothes and no show wigs. Stephanie J Block talked briefly, thanking Chicago and the audience.

1. "I Got You Babe" with Jerrod Spector and Micaela Diamond

2. "The Way of Love" solo Stephanie J Block

3. "Song for the Lonely" with Stephanie J Block,Teal Wicks, and Micaela Diamond

4. "Believe" full company

Updated On: 7/15/18 at 04:19 PM

Thankfully, after reading what went down today, I’m lucky to say I was able to catch the matinee yesterday. Third viewing: my first was first preview (6/12) and then the following Tuesday (6/19). This has made HUGE improvements in a short month. Here’s as coherent of ramblings I can muster as far as what’s changed the most. Sorry in advance if this gets long or if some of these changes have been aforementioned by other posters.

-“Dream is a Wish” scene with Babe at the sewing machine no longer opens the show. Now we dive straight into the variety show scene, which has had major rewrites to better explain the presence of the 3 Chers.

-There’s a few more appearances of the production team peppered throughout moments in the show to remind us this is supposed to be a variety show retrospective of her life. ie: when Babe’s girlfriends join her and Sonny and he gives them cash for the sewing machine, the production assistant with the headset pokes his head out from behind the curtain to make a joke (that I can’t remember)

-Stephanie’s hair has doubled in size and it significantly improves her look.

-Half Breed has been reworked into a short lullaby. -It’s already been said but the “All I Really Wanna Do” number has been cut as well as the staging of the double beds has changed, which altered Stars joke about the beds being suddenly pushed together.

-In the bed scene, Jarrod was not only shirtless this time, but sporting some *very* nice short grey boxers.

-They’re all doing the “Cher speaking voice” to the best of their ability without it being a mockery. They were all holding back the first week. Now it appears all three women have spent a good amount of time figuring out what works for their voices.

-Rewrites were done to the scene with Phil Spector and lines were added to more clearly spell out for people who didn’t understand who Darlene Love was and why Cher had to step in to record her background vocals.

-Significant restructuring towards the end of Act 1. This is where I noticed the most coherent changes. It begins when Lady starts to complain about being overworked. Honestly, even with two viewings it was hard to follow the first time around. It originally started with “Superstar” (which has long been cut) then went into “Bang, Bang” which was *heavily* interrupted by the book scenes of Lady requesting a break. Sonny threatening divorce. Sonny notices her “flirting” with the guitarist during the number. First preview, Sonny threatens Cher by punching the wall and the whole set turned red and glass shattering sound effect was played. The second time viewing (and this time as well) they dropped the Thor-like wall punch and opt for “If I catch you talking to him, I’ll break his fingers.” All this dialogue used to be sandwiched into “Bang, Bang”

-Now, the girls sing a completely uninterrupted version of “Bang, Bang” after Sonny denies Lady a break and blows her off. The smashing of the guitarists fingers and Sonny threatening divorce scene comes once the song has ended. It now also translates more coherently into the following scene when Cher learns Sonny is swindling her money, which leads to her to deciding to divorce him herself. (“Song for the Lonely”

-Significantly less book work has been done to Act 2. I suspect that’s because Act 1 needed so much more tweaking. We’ll have to wait until November to hear what they change. Personally, I’d like much less Allman/Camiletti and more focus on her rebuilding her career after the events of Act 1. Instead we hear more about how she met Greg in a bar and how his drug problem affects her dream and their baby, but we never really see *how* she got back on her feet after Sonny. I don’t know what it needs exactly, but the whole saloon scene needs work. They do a spectacular job, however, of representing her film career with “The Beat Goes On” number.

-As everyone else has said...”Dark Lady” duet needs to go. The dancers are phenomenal but it brings the show to a screeching halt.

-I wouldn’t mind seeing “Dov’e L’amore” on the chopping block either.

-I read above that someone said they’ve been working on the ending of the “Believe” ballad, because there was a pause and people were confused when to clap. Whatever they did yesterday worked and SJB almost blew the house down.

-New powder blue costume jacket for Georgia in the finale scene. Old one was black, I believe? More meat added to her final speech to fill in gaps a bit (20 years of farewell tours, tweeting, etc.)

All in all, I think this will be a hit next year. Obviously a shoe-in for the costume design Tony Award. And we don’t even begin to know of what Micaela Diamond is going to be capable. That girl is a powerhouse.

Ending this with a nod to a post I made a few weeks ago: I would DIE to see what Dee Roscioli does with Lady.....ugh.

Updated On: 7/15/18 at 06:24 PM

Marlothom said: "Seems like they knew the show would be cancelled for a few hours. Not sure why they made people wait in the lobby for almost an hour - I live down the street but I imagine there were folks from the burbs that would have liked to have gone about their day, gone to see Waitress, and just not wait around being told the show would go on. Today, I had no shame in recording as much of the concert as possible."

Lol can I get a copy of that bootleg? I was there and noticed the chairs, hoping it was just going to be a preshow Q&A with the creative team. Such a bummer that they couldn’t do the show, but I’m glad I took advantage of seeing it 5 times while it was here. The cast were very apologetic at the stage door, but things happen. Can’t wait to see how much it changes from here to NYC!

3 Chers? 3 Donnna Summers?
Why does this sound just like the Donna Summer musical.