Turning Back Time — or Damn Close — at 'The Cher Show'

THE CHER SHOW

Jukebox musical / Open run

HER OWN PERSONAL FLEET WEEK Stephanie J. Block as Cher with admirers (a.k.a. backup dancers) in “The Cher Show,” which opened in early December at the Neil Simon Theater.

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THREE THINGS ABOUT JUKEBOX MUSICALS: (1) They sell. Everybody knows the star or stars and the songs. Ticket buyers find that reassuring. (2) They are an inferior entertainment form. If there’s no premise beyond the genre, what’s the point of paying $150+ for the equivalent of a tribute-band concert? (3) But sometimes they work. And although “The Cher Show” is in many ways a jukebox musical, it deserves a round of special applause.

EARLY DAYS Micaela Diamond, one of three actresses who play Cher in “The Cher Show,” with Jarred Spector sa Sonny Bono. The couple’s first big hit was “I Got You, Babe” in 1965.

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So it seems wrong to use such a loaded term to describe “The Cher Show,” which actually tells the story of a real human being, with strengths and weaknesses, ups and downs, good luck and bad. Stephanie J. Block (in the glamour photo) plays Cher, as do Micaela Diamond and Teal Wicks. And OMG, that’s Emily Skinner (Broadway veteran — from as far back as “Sideshow”) as her mother.

Even if the performances hadn’t been outstanding and the music hadn’t been even more fun than it was the first time around (a certain freedom comes with the passing of time), this show would have been worth seeing for the costumes alone. Bob Mackie (played by Michael Berresse in the show), who began designing Cher’s onstage fashions something like half a century ago, designed the costumes for this production too. Which is just the right amount of meta.

THE THREE FACES OF CHERILYN SARKISIAN From left, Teal Wicks, Stephanie J. Block and Micaela Diamond.

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I didn’t expect much from “The Cher Show,” which I saw 72 hours after opening night. Especially after Jesse Green of The New York Times had called it a “maddening mishmash” and Peter Marks of The Washington Post had described it as “glitzy, tedious and unabashedly worshipful,” not to mention “unevenly conceived.” The kiss of death from an intelligent critic who writes for grown-ups.

But my press-night guest, RR, and I were both sold, right away, to the point of giddiness. Which means that I agree much more with David Rooney’s assessment of the show in The Hollywood Reporter (“slyly fabulous and imbued with a plucky feminist spirit that’s quite stirring”) and Rolling Stone’s (“an explosion of fabulous excess that survives against all odds”). Does that description remind you of anybody?

THE BEAT OF THE TAMBOURINE “The Cher Show” is choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, whose other recent Broadway work includes the 2018 revival of “My Fair Lady.”

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The Times, by the way, printed a second opinion: a Critic’s Notebook essay by Laura Collins-Hughes, one of the paper’s frequent freelance contributors. Hughes liked the show a good deal better than Green did, summing it up affectionately as “something gentler and more compassionate” than the typical jukebox musical, “the story of a female human being who became a superstar.”

One important takeaway: “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” was apparently much funnier than I’d remembered. The show (with the real Sonny and Cher, in photo), which ran from 1971 to 1974 on CBS, made me nervous at the time. I was trying to be a good hippie, and something very Establishment had happened to this groovy couple’s shaggy hair, bell-bottom jeans, fake fur vests and peace-sign jewelry, But in “The Cher Show,” the early-’70s series manages to look radical in its own way.

To answer a few relevant questions, so you don’t have to look them up again: Cher turned 72 in May. Sonny died 21 years ago (January 1998) in a skiing accident. Yes, Gregg Allman, Cher’s second husband, is depicted in the show (played by Matthew Hydzik). Sonny and Cher’s child, Chastity, is mentioned in the script, referred to in every case as Chaz.

Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, thechershowbroadway.com, 2 hours 20 minutes. Opened on Dec. 3, 2018. Open run.