By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 13, 2000
It was Cirque du Cher Friday night at the Allstate Arena.
How else can you describe a concert that incorporated a theatrical stage setup with flying dancers and costumes worthy of “The Road Warrior” and “Les Miserables”?
This show was virtually the same as the one she performed five months ago at the Allstate Arena. But no matter. The 80-minute spectacle was delicious eye and ear candy, even for those of us going back for seconds.
Surveying her audience, which included a pair of grade school doppelgangers–complete with Cher-style wigs (actually Christmas garland) on their heads–she joked, “[I see the] same amount of tramps and thieves and gypsies this time. I just need to know who my audience is.”
Kicking her show off with U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” she exhibited little signs of strain from being on the road. Wearing what she called her “Darth Maul’s mother’s” outfit, she worked her flowing red wig as she sang in her familiar throaty/nasal voice.
Showmanship is a big part of her charm. Because let’s face it. There are better singers than Cher on the charts. But few can entertain as well as her.
Chatting up the audience with just the right amount of candor and rehearsed patter, Cher–at her best–has the ability to transcend even schlock such as “Walking in Memphis.”
And when she’s given a gem of a pop song like “Believe,” the 1999 hit that got her back on MTV and VH1, she takes the song to another level. She has guts, too, sharing the stage–so to speak–with a pair of showy aerialists who descended from the ceiling. Cher once attributed the success of the song to the “Cher-bot”–the studio manipulation of her voice that gives the chorus a techno, robotic vibe. That twist certainly didn’t hurt, but one suspects that she would’ve pulled something equally inventive from one of her many sleeves.
Her five-piece band, two backup singers and six dancers kept up with her, adding a Vegas-style feel to a medley of songs that included “Half Breed,” “The Way We Love” and “Gypies, Tramps and Thieves.”
And whenever the dancers would flip around on stage for more than a minute, the audience knew that La Cher was backstage changing into another fabulous costume. (“I’m getting older and I’m dressing appropriately,” she cracked.)
There was the elegant white gown that proved to be see-through when the lights went up (come on, it’s Cher!), the Napoleon meets the Pirates of Penzance ensemble and the catsuit that revealed a figure most 21-year-olds would covet.
Of course, Cher at 21 had an even more spectacular figure, which was apparent during a video montage of her fabulously thin, “Sonny & Cher” days when she fearlessly wore Bob Mackie’s barely-there creations. When she sang, “If I could turn back time/If I could find a way,” I wondered whether she thought the years had betrayed her.
She shouldn’t.
Dressed in crinkly black pants and a sparkly tank top, she looked ridiculously good and, more importantly, comfortable with who she has become.
