CHER AND CHER ALIKE
Goddess of Pop faces herself at top secret reading
Cher always knew she wanted to be famous, and got a job as a backup singer as a teenager. She met Sonny Bono in 1962, and the musical shows how they shrewdly climbed their way to the top of the music business, later becoming household names with “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” on television. After their 1975 divorce, Cher reinvented herself as a pop icon and a movie star.
The songs in “Cher: The Musical” are from Cher’s catalog. Three different actress play Cher at various stages of
her life. Jil-
lian Mueller played the young Cher, and Lesli Margher
ita (Mrs. Wormwood in “Matilda”) played the mature one.
At one point, Cher thought she might even play herself in the show. In a 2014 interview with my colleague Barbara
Hoffman, she said, “I could play the old Cher quite well.”
But that idea seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Mueller and Margherita were pronounced excellent, but the standout was Lena Hall, as middle-aged Cher. Hall, who won a Tony for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” thrilled everybody with her renditions of “I Got You Babe” and “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.” “Lena Hall killed it,” people were saying (privately!) after the reading. A showstopper was “If I Could Turn Back Time,” sung by all three. Jarrod Spector, who played Barry Mann in “Beautiful: The Carole
King Musical,” was said to be terrific as Sonny Bono.
Back when he wasn’t sworn to secrecy, Elice told me, “They may pack me in a van and have me carted away when they see what I’ve done with her life.”
I don’t think he has to worry. By all accounts, “Cher: The Musical” is shaping up to be a lot of fun.
I’m dying to know what Cher thinks, and when she tells me, I’ll tell you — but don’t tell anyone else!