"The Cher Show" on Broadway

I see a lot of shows, and many are great, others are only so-so, but I seldom write reviews on any of them. But last weekend, I saw "The Cher Show" on Broadway (its currently playing at the Neil Simon Theatre on West 52nd Street in New York).

The play is a jukebox musical biopic story about the diva in the title. The woman born as Cherilyn Sarkisian from El Centro, California, a border town in the Imperial Valley, but is much better known by the mononymous (and abbreviated) name Cher. More than a few of such jukebox musical shows have made their mark on the big white way in recent years about Carole King, Frankie Valli, Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan, Donna Summer and even Janis Joplin to name a few. Most were enjoyable for what they were, but were mostly formula-driven musical bios that followed a boring, chronological storylines (only Summer broke from that sequence) with the music shoe-horned into the story.

Being a longtime Cher fan anyway (I'm old enough to have grown up watching the original weekly TV variety show broadcast live with the Bonos and their first child, who is exactly my age -- born just a few weeks before me), the subsequent solo Cher variety show, and the duo's short-lived, post-divorce return to television variety as an on-screen couple, even if she was already married to Gregg Allman at the time (Mr. Allman died back in 2017, but Cher did not give the eulogy at his funeral as she did at Sonny Bono's in 1998), so "The Cher Show" wasn't really a difficult sell for me, yet I still went into it with low expectations given my disappointment with so many others in this theater genre so far. The genre is more like a Beatlemania performance, rather than a story like The Miracle Worker about Helen Keller.

Anyway, on that front, I was very pleasantly surprised with "The Cher Show". Sure, the jukebox biopic genre is still more about filling theater seats daily with tourists than about boundary-pushing stories or performances. But "The Cher Show" did a few things differently which I really enjoyed.

The non-linear story telling (and the music that accompanied it) was in my opinion, very refreshing, and it also wasn't a reminder that I'll be a half-century old this year (or that Cher herself will be 72). Its accomplished with three different actresses playing Cher at different points of her life, named Babe, Lady and Star respectively, yet they interact with one another throughout the show, sometimes rather humorously. Although the actresses were good at mimicking her smoky, contralto voice, I don't envision Patti Lupone is worried any of the actresses are ready to unseat her for acting just yet. They were all great singers, but they did what they could for the role they were cast; and none can ever be Cher herself.

Cher's direct, personal involvement as the producer of "The Cher Show" as well the direct involvement of her long-time friend and costume designer Bob Mackie, who has won multiple Emmy Awards of his own, both really give the show its unique edge. The show's director Jason Moore said this way: "You can't really tell the Cher story without telling the Bob Mackie part of it".

Bob Mackie's sequin-studded, feathered "nude" dress that Cher wore to the 1974 Met Gala.

Bob Mackie spoke fondly of his relationship with Cher, whom he met as a guest on "The Carol Burnett Show". He said "To be cute and pretty back then, you had to have a turned-up nose and lots of blond hair. But Cher is an amazing-looking girl. She can look like anything. She loved getting dressed up, and nothing intimidated her. By the end, people were turning on the show just to see what she was going to wear." Colors were bold, sequins were plentiful, coverage was minimal.

"Almost nothing he [Bob Mackie] ever made me did I hate," Cher said. "The minute I started getting beads, I didn't care what happened."

One of her most iconic singles was not her 2017 smash "Believe", which became the bestselling song of her musical career, but was her breakout 1971 solo single "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" from a performance that was given on their Sonny & Cher variety show performed around the same period of time (in the days before music videos existed). A clip of that can be listened to below (fast forward to the second track), or by visiting https://archive.org/details/cd_gypsys-tramps-thieves_cher:



 "The Cher Show" features an impressive re-interpretation of so many of her iconic Bob Mackie costumes (reportedly over 600 costumes), which are changed with a rapid frequency that's definitely a testament to the actresses who play the 3 different Chers.

Bob Mackie himself deserves much of the credit for his role in "The Cher Show"; he is the sole costume designer for the show. He says he had the original designs and sketches for most of her original costumes, which made it less of a new creative endeavor and more of a production assignment for the show, although there were some notable modifications. Many of the original costumes that Cher wore were reportedly incredibly heavy and fragile, she reportedly tripped wearing one to the accept the Oscar that she won, dropping an earing on the way up to the podium), including the different headpieces, so Mr. Mackie creatively modified the originals for "The Cher Show", making them much lighter-weight, yet still as radiant as the originals, and also durable enough to survive the rapid pace costume changes in the show. Both Cher and Bob Mackie deserve rightful credit for their roles in bringing "The Cher Show" on Broadway to fruition and making it work.

Cher's involvement also ensured that audiences of the show don't forget her journey to becoming not only a pop star first by going to London with Sonny Bono (the show also features an appearance by someone playing legendary American sixties musical producer Phil Spector who's now in jail for murdering his wife) to becoming an Oscar-winner, or even her humiliating infomercial period (which was hilariously lampooned on SNL, as well as on "In Living Color" which was one of the Fox broacasting network's earliest successes after "The Simpsons") or Cher's much-chronicled love-life, the subject of tabloid fodder for as long as I've been alive, isn't a central focus. Although a few of her most memorable romances (including her two husbands, and her affair with "bagel boy" Rob Camilletti who was 22 years her junior when she was living in New York to pursue a stage career) have roles, its but difficult to fit so many romances into a short biopic and its not supposed to be about her colorful love-life anyway. The show even humorously acknowledges Cher's many farewell shows.

But Cher's two children are barely acknowledged in the except as a decoration, and they use baby dolls rather than actors to fill those roles. To her credit, her oldest child is referred to as Chaz throughout the show, although as noted, her kids are hardly mentioned. The important thing to remember is: this is "The Cher Show", not the Sonny & Cher Show, the Cher and Gregg Allman Show, the Cher and Bagel Boy Show, or the Cher and her Kids Show. They are all acknowledged, but the show isn't really about any them. Perhaps that's more to respect her children's privacy than it is about ignoring them. Chaz Bono, for example, went through a painful period of gender dysphoria growing up before ultimately transitioning to become male. While Cher wasn't initially thrilled, mainly because she wasn't confided in until the decision had already been made by Chaz, she ultimately helped her child with the transition and has since willingly embraced the slightly-modified name (which went from Chastity to Chaz) that was ultimately chosen.

Although her own children are played by baby dolls in "The Cher Show", her mother plays a very significant role in "The Cher Show". Her father, John Sarkisian, on the other hand, was absent, which is largely as Cher remembered him growing up. By the time her mother Georgia Holt learned she was pregnant with Cher, she had already left Mr. Sarkisian. Cher spent very little time with her father growing up, whom she says had a gambling and heroin habit. Cher had a series of stepfathers growing up — her mother was married a total of eight times, to six different men. And yet, her mother is depicted in a way that glosses over her own many relationship failures to make her appear wise instead. Cher claims its because she mostly watched her mother survive alone.

There are even a few funny cameos in the show by the likes of an actress that portrays the late Lucille Ball who Cher says actually gave her advice as a young woman about not letting a husband run her life or her career (Lucy was spoke from her own experience).

On the musical score, most are familiar with Cher's long discography (the show includes 35 of her songs), but her willingness to abandon linear sequence of her music was a refreshing surprise which deserves acknowledgement. We start early with "All I Really Want to Do", but end up at the auto-tuned "Believe" just a few minutes later. At the same time, they had to cut things to keep the length of the show right, and the biggest omission on the musical score is the complete exclusion of Cher's duration with Casablanca Records which includes such numbers as "Hell On Wheels" that was big during the roller-disco era of the late-seventies into the early-eighties. Admittedly, her Casablanca period didn't produce any of the platinum-selling singles that her late 1990's dance tracks did, yet was still a relevant part of her lengthy yet successful musical career. Perhaps its not a critical omission, but an omission nonetheless that could have been colorful and funny.

Like all jukebox musicals, "The Cher Show" has an expiration date. People are unlikely to be watching this in another 50 years, just as no one will likely be watching shows about Billy Joel or Gloria Estefan because they are pop culture celebrities of today. It won't matter since its based on pop culture of yesterday and today, not tomorrow.

No matter, in all, I would still give "The Cher Show" two thumbs up. Its enjoyable without taking itself too seriously. The actresses that perform her are great singers, and she's still willing to be the butt of a joke that made her early TV variety hows such big hits. Its not perfect, but there's a lot to like about "The Cher Show" and was a lot more enjoyable than some others in this same genre. The costumes are great, as is the music, and its funny enough without being too serious.

Donna Summer's Colorful Life the Basis for New Broadway Musical

Born on December 31, 1948 and raised as LaDonna Adrian Gaines, the disco and pop diva known as Donna Summer grew up as one of seven children.  She was a native of Boston, specifically the Mission Hill area which is located between the much larger neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury Crossing.

Sadly, she passed away at age 63 at her home in Naples, Florida on May 17, 2012.  The official cause of death was lung cancer, although her family made a point to tell the press that Ms. Summer was never even a smoker.  But Donna Summer's legacy looms very large in the music business, and now its on Broadway.  NPR had a relevant clip on her passing, which can be listened to below, or by visiting https://n.pr/JCSTGW:

Playbill from the Broadway musical "Summer" 

After a trial run at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, now "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical", which is a jukebox musical featuring her songs, has opened at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theater.  Three different actresses play Ms. Summer at various points in her life, depicting her Boston upbringing, her burgeoning success with the producer Giorgio Moroder and her later years.  Similar autobiographical subjects for musical shows have followed a similar pattern.  Summer has received mixed reviews so far, although that will not necessarily limit its success (or failure).

Donna Summer began her music career back in the late 1960's, when she left home and joined a blues/rock band.  Although the band was commercially unsuccessful, her time with the band took her to New York where she made a name for herself with her vocal talents (notably, record labels did not want the band she was in, but several expressed interest in her talent as a solo singer).  Ms. Summer found work singing as a backup singer for 1970's trio Three Dog Night.

While in New York, Donna Summer auditioned for a role in the counterculture musical "Hair" (a movie version would later be released co-starring a young Beverly D'Angelo who is perhaps best known for her role as Ellen Griswold in several "Vacation" movies).  Donna Summer landed the part of Sheila in "Hair", and she agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show, moving to Germany.

Move to Europe Changes Donna Summer's Career Trajectory

She spent several years living, acting, and singing in Europe (and she learned to speak German while there).  In 1973, she met her first husband, Austrian actor Helmut Sommer, and she gave birth to their daughter (Mimi) Natalia Pia Melanie Sommer.  During her time in Europe, she also first met European music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, who would later loom large in her career as a singer as her fellow songwriters, producers, arrangers and managers.  Her married surname of Sommer was supposed to be the name used on her recordings, but a typo at her first record label dubbed her as Donna Summer, which is the stage name that stuck.

State's "Hit Parade" podcast had an excellent overview entitled "The Queen of Disco" worth listening to in its entirety below, or by visiting http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/hit_parade/2017/11/donna_summer_s_three_decade_chart_reign.html.



Following her successful stage role in the musical "Hair" playing in Europe, she would later land a record label contract as a solo singer.  In 1975, the record-label known as Casablanca Records signed the then-new solo artist Donna Summer and the following year, released her album entitled "Love to Love You Baby" which was certified gold.  Casablanca enjoyed a brief period of big-time success in the mid-to-late-1970's, and Donna Summer was big part of that.  The Casablanca label also featured Kiss, Cher (for a time, anyway), Player, Lipps Inc., Tony Orlando, Dusty Springfield (for a time), and Captain & Tennille (see my blog post on that duo at https://goo.gl/9WdWG5 for more), The Village People and many other hit artists during the record label's initial heyday.

Donna Summer's breakout hit song "Love to Love You Baby" was over 17 minutes long, and Casablanca released the song in its entirety as a single (a much shorter version was promoted to radio stations).  In releasing the 17-minute version as a single, Casablanca would help popularize a format that would become known as the 12-inch (the diameter of the vinyl record that contained the extended-play song).  The single became a big disco success during the era when clubs like Studio 54 dominated the time in which younger Baby Boomers' were becoming young adults, and fueling the nightlife and disco era (by going out to boogie on weekends) perhaps best typified by the 1977 hit movie (and corresponding hit movie soundtrack) "Saturday Night Fever".

22 Orgasms in the Single Love to Love You Baby

As noted, the single "Love to Love You Baby" was written by Donna Summer herself, as well as her collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.  That song featured Ms. Summer seductively moaning and groaning (as if she was having sex), and that caused the single to be banned by some American and European radio stations.  According to one tally by Time magazine, Ms. Summer could be heard having 22 orgasms in this track (the BBC's own censors reportedly counted 23, but hey, what's one more orgasm?), although she later told Rolling Stone magazine and other media outlets that those sound effects were simply acting.  We know that lines of recordings can be played repeatedly in singles as a refrain, although that mainly applies to lyrics, so its unclear exactly what an orgasmic moan qualifies as in a recorded song.  That can be listened to below or by visiting https://youtu.be/4C4j6q6PQc0.


But, as it turns out, efforts to try and ban the song for being too sexually explicit actually had the opposite effect, and helped to make it a smash hit.  The single went to #2 on the U.S. Hot 100.  Not surprisingly, around the same time, pornography was also going mainstream, with a 1973 movie release named "Deep Throat" gaining a reputation as a "must-see" movie, eventually earning more money than any film had previously (and so far, since) -- I blogged about the mainstreaming of porn at https://goo.gl/9FG5K for more on that topic.

Ms. Summer would quickly release an impressive sting of other chart-topping disco hits in the next few years including "I Feel Love", "Last Dance", "MacArthur Park", "Heaven Knows", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights", and "On the Radio".  Ms. Summer would also record a hit duet with Barbra Streisand.

All told, Donna Summer earned a total of 32 hit singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in her lifetime, with 14 reaching the top ten.  She claimed a top 40 hit every year between 1975 and 1984, and from her first top ten hit in 1976, to the end of 1982, she had 12 top ten hits (10 were top five hits), more than any other act during that time period.  She returned to the Hot 100's top five in 1983, and claimed her final top ten hit in 1989 with "This Time I Know It's for Real".

Casablanca Records: Hit-Machine During Disco Era, Known for Excess

Her first record label Casablanca Records was best known for excess.  The Los Angeles-based record label was bringing in millions of dollars from a string of radio hits (including those by Donna Summer).  Casablanca Records' fall began when the 1980's began. The label was known to spend lavish amounts of money on parties, events, and promotion. There were even rumors of free-flowing cocaine at its parties and headquarters.  As a result, profit margins suffered due to the carefree spending by the label. Casablanca also spent lavish amounts of money on promoting its releases, which made its artists very happy, but not necessarily PolyGram, which later owned a 50% stake in the label.  It would eventually suffer from "accounting irregularities" leading to its eventual sale to the much bigger PolyGram record label which distributed its records anyway.  When Casablanca's lavish spending habits were realized by PolyGram, it quickly made an offer to purchase the other half of Casablanca it did not already own in 1980, but the "good old days" at Casablanca Records were effectively over.

Summer's Move to Geffen Records, And Later, to Atlantic Records

Donna Summer herself left Casablanca Records in 1980 when she signed with another startup known as Geffen Records, then a new record label started by David Geffen.  But she still released the hit single "She Works Hard For The Money" under her old contract with Casablanca.  But because Ms. Summer wanted to go into a different direction with her music; while Casablanca wanted her to keep recording disco and nothing else, she decided to find a different record label, and David Geffen made her an offer she could not refuse.  Ms. Summer also filed a 10-million-dollar suit against Casablanca; but the label counter-sued. In the end, although Ms. Summer did not receive any money, she did win the rights to her own lucrative song publishing.  Her decision to change record labels and focus away from disco proved to be a good move.  With Geffen, she would release the hit single "The Wanderer" although it was still more disco than she wanted.  By that time, she was growing tired of constant recording, touring, etc. so she was ready when to take a break from music.  She would re-emerge in at the end of the decade with a single "This Time I Know It's for Real" (which went to #3 on the U.S. Hot 100) in 1989 which was released on Atlantic Records, then a division of Warner Bros. Records.

Ms. Summer also did some minor acting roles on TV in the mid-to-late 1990's in sitcom "Family Matters" playing the role of Aunt Oona Urkel in two episodes.  However, she will likely always be remembered for her huge role in the popular disco era, with incredibly danceable tracks that were popular in their day.

Although there is no guarantee it will remain available, the Viacom-owned cable network's series "Behind the Music" ran an interesting bio of Donna Summer, which seems particularly relevant in the years since her death.  That can be viewed (for the moment) by visiting https://youtu.be/ZrXepibp22Y.

There was also an interesting interview with Donna Summer done by BBC Radio.  Although BBC Radio no longer has the interview online, another blog/ website has retained it which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://www.musiclikedirt.com/2012/05/18/donna-summer48-12/:

Faith as a Basis for Broadway Success

In the 1970's, several different Broadway shows, specifically "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" placed the central story of Christianity's Gospel as center-stage in the commercial musical theater.  As might be expected, at the time, some conservative Christian groups objected to these plays.  In their view, to enact the word of God in a commercial theater rather than a sacred house of worship was to profane it.  Nevertheless, both shows were successful (if not overwhelmingly, certainly enough to be commercial successes for their time).  Ironically, many churches later embraced these shows as a way of spreading the gospel, especially among younger Christians.

Both of those shows were also some of the first professional works of then-twentysomething songwriters whose work would subsequently loom quite large in the theater world, including Stephen Schwartz ("Pippin," "Wicked") who wrote most of "Godspell's" music and some of its lyrics; and the British team of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (who went on create "Evita," and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" among others) who created the "Jesus Christ Superstar" score.

"Jesus Christ Superstar" also gave rise to a celebrity singer from Hawaii which until that time was better known for Don Ho in the music world.  Her name was Yvonne Elliman, and her vocal interpretation of the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" sung by the Biblical character of Mary Magdalene in the London performance of that show, and its subsequent production on Broadway in New York helped make her a global superstar.  She subsequently had a platinum single from the hit soundtrack of the 1977 film "Saturday Night Fever", specifically "If I Can't Have You", which was written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb (better known as the Bee Gees), which helped usher in the disco era to American music.  She would follow that with Billboard-chart hits including a cover of "Hello Stranger" to name a few of her hits during the 1970's.  A clip from her broadway song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" can be listened to below.

Just why these religiously-inspired shows hit so big at a time when young Baby Boomers were rejecting religion (organized or otherwise) en-masse was most likely due to the catchy music, and familiar stories that were set in more modern times.  Of course, the shows followed a longtime theater pattern of depicting cathartic stories of loss and redemption that are really core to virtually every successful Broadway show, and have been at the heart of comedy/tragedy upon which theater has continued since ancient Greek times.

As noted, these were Baby Boomer re-interpretations of old religious teachings that were force-fed to them by their parents.  As already noted, another, subsequent West End/Broadway show also produced by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber with a rather similar religious inspiration known as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" would follow the same basic format, although "Joseph" had very little dialogue, and virtually the entire script was set to music.  Also, the duo followed a different path to get "Joseph" produced by persuading some friends to record the songs, and then the album took off, which subsequently triggered the stage production (which was where they first began with it).

"Godspell", "Jesus Christ Superstar, and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" also helped pave the way for more modern variations of religiously-inspired shows, including the smash hit "The Book of Mormon", which parodies some of unique tenets of Mormonism.  The basis for that show, the lyrics, and music were written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone (best known for their collaboration on the television cartoon hit "South Park") and Robert Lopez.  "The Book of Mormon" follows two young Mormon missionaries as they attempt to share their scriptures with the inhabitants of a remote Ugandan village. The earnest young men are challenged by a lack of interest of the locals, who are preoccupied with more pressing troubles such as AIDS, famine, and oppression from the local warlord.

To be sure, although earlier stage productions stayed marginally truer to the original Biblical teachings set to catchy, modern music, given the popularity of "The Book of Mormon", it would seem difficult for any musical based upon a religious theme to succeed today without a sense of satire embodied by "The Book of Mormon".  Of course, times change and so do public sensibilities.

At the 2011 Tony Awards, Book of Mormon had a performance, which can be seen below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/PHEqCXY2B-w:



Still, while "The Book of Mormon" focuses on the Mormon faith, there is plenty of fodder for Evangelical, born-again Christianity, which perhaps moreso than any other faith tradition in the U.S., practices hypocrisy of "do as we say, not as we do" by many followers, whose support of slavery, the death penalty, gay marriage bans, denial of Constitutional rights to non-Evangelical Christians, and divorce are all at odds with actual Biblical teachings.  What the next faith-based Broadway hit will be remains to be seen, but there are certainly plenty of role models to base them on.