(seen at the afternoon performance on 4th February 2023)
Having scripted the smash hit “Jersey Boys” about decade-spanning star Frankie Valli, Rick Elice turns his attention to Cher. Singer, performer, icon for decades. Her story from humble beginnings in small-town California, through numerous marriages and career highs and lows creating the woman she is today.
Tom Rogers gives us cleverly conceived year-markers in his effective backstage dressing storage room set. Gabriella Slade on costumes and Sam Cox on wigs create the authentic looks through the eras not just for the star but the wider ensemble.
Ben Cracknell’s lighting highlights the best moments and heightens the concerts and drama as they play out, a remarkable achievement for a touring production where the lighting plot must be re-created and adapted for every venue.
Inhabiting this world, Elice decides to use three actors. “Star” Debbie Kurup, “Lady” Danielle Steers” and “Babe” Millie O’Connell. These three aspects of Cher’s career interact throughout, helping each other through good times and bad, each coming into their own for a short time before fading to reveal another facet of the singer’s life.
All are outstanding performers, uncannily sounding like the woman yet with a slight edge to each voice differentiating time period and suiting the individual vocal talents. Hopefully the trio will work together for a live concert event of their own sometime.
Equally notable is Tori Scott as Georgia, Cher’s mother and ultimate mentor. Another powerful voice and strong performance.
Cher must have a Sonny, and Lucas Rush fills admirably the role of the man she cannot be without. He has the simplest story – from struggling musician to overbearing business manager and co-performer to sad early death in a skiing accident.
By the interval, the monkey was finding this show rather like the Sydney Opera House roof. Nobody knows how it holds together, but it does and is a memorable sight with a strong construct - though this show has funnier one-liners. Sadly, it turned out that all the drama and the best remembered of Cher’s music happened in the early part of her career.
The second half proved interminable. Mostly lows, with the odd movie high, the songs are all later ballads and the cohesion of the concept of three times in life begins to fall apart. Almost unrelentingly gloomy it lacked the colour, light and adventure of the first half. Worse, one line about Cher's success making her "a man" was cheered... a woman is not permitted to be a success entirely on her own terms and without comparison? Odd.
Near the end of the tour, the ensemble also seemed a little tired. Director Arlene Phillips and choreographer Oti Mabuse come up with relevant dance routines matching the years, but the ensemble seemed to play many at a rather slower speed than expected. Accurate but without the extra pep the 60s and 70s in particular demanded.
It is easy to be snobbish about “biography” or “jukebox” musicals, but done well they satisfy fans and sometimes make new ones. Certainly the fans in attendance loved every minute, and the monkey enjoyed hearing the classic numbers again.
Had the writer cut the show down by 40 minutes and not tried to stretch the material thinly to eke out the second half, this could have been another classic of the genre. As it is, those who are not Cher fans will certainly enjoy the first half and could drop in for the inevitable final sing-along. One for revisal in a few years perhaps, is the monkey feeling.
3 stars.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith. Used by kind permission.