Review: 'The Cher Show' Will Have You Cheering

When you think of a living pop culture legend, who do you think of? Probably just a handful of people. But nobody made a splash like Cher in the late '60s and early '70s with her husband and manager Sonny. Theirs was a story that was intriguing in and of itself.

As winter is hitting hard in Rhode Island, "The Cher Show" makes a brief appearance on the local PPAC stage, but it's a splashy musical romp, with fun songs, a colorful palette, and grand costumes.

The musical, by Rick Elice ("Jersey Boys" book, co-written with Marshall Brickman), centers on not one, but three versions of our star: Babe (Ella Perez), who represents the younger Cher in her early days; Star (Morgan Scott) as the '70s diva; and Lady (Catherine Ariale) as the '80s chart-topping queen. Elice's book takes us on the journey with all three of them; each gives an insight as to what happened along the rocky route to stardom, and Cher has conversations with herself that are at times inspiring and comical.

All three ladies give us strong performances as the legend, with Perez doing the wide-eyed but unsure youngster and Scott looking and sounding every bit like Cher in the '70s, especially doing the "Sonny & Cher Show" bits. But Ariale is in command of all three of them, and she's the one to watch when she's performing numbers like "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" and "I Found Someone." You'll cheer for her – indeed, for all three.

Many other stars make an appearance along the way, including Robert Altman (Tyler Pirrung), Bob Mackey (Pirrung again), Lucille Ball (Kristin Rose Kelleher, who also fleshes out Cher's mom, Georgia Holt), Gregg Allman (Zack Zaromatidis), and, of course, Sonny Bono (Lorenzo Pugliese, perfectly cast as the diminutive singer/producer). Altman directed Cher in both a play and film, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" in 1982; a chance meeting with Lucille Ball brought Cher some grand advice about stardom; and Gregg Allman became her second husband after Sonny.

Mackey is the longtime costume designer for our star and is responsible for the amazing costumes in this production, which also has direction by Casey Hushion, choreography by Antionette DiPietropolo, and lighting design by Charlie Morrisson. Rounding out the creative team are Daniel Lundberg (sound design) and Jonathan Infante (video design).

As mentioned earlier, it's a splashy affair, with grand and colorful visual stylings, some familiar tunes and decent choreography, but the costumes will surely take center stage, and there are so many that the "wow" factor gets a huge boost.

If you're a fan and you missed this tour, it's worth finding a nearby city to go and take a look.

"The Cher Show" came to Providence on February 5 and 6 at The Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset Street, Providence, Rhode Island. For more information visit www.ppacri.org.