Cher Grande Dame

Is there anything as radiant, and yet comforting and predictable, as the sun rising every morning in the eastern sky?

Well, yes. Cher, actually.

At the age of 64, there seems little evidence that the pop diva is relinquishing her hold on fame, or her lifetime supply of fans, and for proof one need look no farther than last Wednesday night, when, for the umpteenth time in her 50-year career, thousands of admirers shelled out big bucks and filled 4,300 seats at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for her last show before a summer hiatus and a return to the same stage in September.

It is a sight to see, the ageless pop phenomenon that is Cher in 2010, floating down from the Colosseum rafters in a glitzy chariot that swings out over the crowd and deposits her on stage, where, for the next hour and a half, she belts out 25 familiar hits from The Beat Goes On and Half-Breed to If I Could Turn Back Time and Believe, along with a Sonny and Cher “duet,” all the while slipping in and out of 17 dazzling Bob Mackie-designed costumes.

The voice, richer and fuller than ever, is surprising. So, too, is her size, which is tiny, really tiny. And she’s funny and energetic, and even though you’ve seen her several times, in Vegas years ago, and more recently in Vancouver and, yes, even in the mid-’60s when she and Sonny performed at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, she’s clearly hit her stride.

And when you scan the crowd, her enduring appeal becomes self-evident.

Cher’s a showgirl, the kind of entertainer whose fan base covers every demographic, from the casually dressed Las Vegas buffet crowd to high-rollers in diamonds and heels, from couples in their 30s to boomers wearing boas, from glittery teenagers to cheering sections of adoring gays.

There are those who unabashedly love Cher, who have followed her since her fringe-banged, bell-bottomed, bobcat-vested I Got You Babe days of 1965 when she and husband Sonny not only ruled the radio, but later the television variety show landscape. Fans who have steadfastly followed her solo music career and her transition to movie star in films like Silkwood and Moonstruck, who cheered when she won an Oscar and felt bad when Sonny died, who’ve tracked her romances and her kids, Elijah Blue and sweet Chastity, who was born a girl but is now a man.

There are those, too, who secretly love Cher, but will never publicly admit so, and when you tell them you just paid $180 to sit on the aisle in the fifth row of the Colosseum — so close you could see the tattoos on her butt cheeks (surgically enhanced or not, those senior buns were things of beauty) – they sigh and say, “Oh, I love her. I bet she was great.”

She was, indeed. That’s the thing about the Chers of the entertainment world.

Their job, be it on the stage or on a CD or big screen, is to take you away, if only for an hour or so, to wrap you in their talent and the story they’re telling, in the acting and singing and dancing, in the vastness of their personality and the polished production around them.

Cher is all pop culture opera, an over-the-top modern day minstrel with a cute derriere and a big voice, and to say she was made for Vegas and backup dancers is to drastically understate the obvious, for nowhere does her confident campy persona fit so snugly as it does in the city of spectacle.

There is about her, and has been from the beginning, that rare magic fairy dust possessed by all great entertainers, from the Rat Pack of Las Vegas lore to Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion, for whom the Colosseum at Caesar’s was built.

Theirs is not flash-in-the-pan, flame-out celebrity, but something commanding and perennial and — like ‘em or not — it’s what keeps the turnstiles clicking.

Those of us in line for Cher, the ones who admit it and even those who don’t, do it because she never fails to deliver. Or surprise.

This fall, on the eve of qualifying for Social Security, she stars alongside Christina Aguilera in the movie musical Burlesque, in which she plays, what else, a madam.

Meanwhile, there’s that stage show she’s been doing in Vegas, having signed on for 200 shows back in 2008, and the best that can be said about 90 minutes of Cher and her sassy ass is that it’s the smartest $2 a minute you’ll ever spend in the name of entertainment.

Source: Vancouver Sun

Tickets to Cher’s Las Vegas Concerts. There are still many great front row seats left at the following shows…
Sat, September 4th
BUY TICKETS
Sun, September 5th
BUY TICKETS
Tue, September 7th
BUY TICKETS
Wed, September 8th
BUY TICKETS
Fri, September 10th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, September 11th
BUY TICKETS
Tue, September 21st
BUY TICKETS
Wed, September 22nd
BUY TICKETS
Sat, September 25th
BUY TICKETS
Sun, September 26th
BUY TICKETS
Tue, September 28th
BUY TICKETS
Wed, September 29th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, October 2nd
BUY TICKETS
Sun, October 3rd
BUY TICKETS
Tue, October 5th
BUY TICKETS
Wed, October 6th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, October 9th
BUY TICKETS
Sun, October 10th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, october 16th
BUY TICKETS
Sun, October 17th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, October 23rd
BUY TICKETS

Sun, October 24th
BUY TICKETS
Tue, October 26th
BUY TICKETS
Wed, October 27th
BUY TICKETS
Sat, October 30th
BUY TICKETS
Sun, October 31st
BUY TICKETS

Buy Cher Las Vegas Tickets - Top Seats

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 3:06 am and is filed under Cher Las Vegas, Cher News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.