The Cher Show At The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford Review

Reviewed by Jenny Bray

Who’d have thought that having 3 of the same person on one stage together would work?! Well, it most definitely did. Welcome to The Cher Show, with young Cher/Babe (Millie O’Connell), Cher mark 2/Lady (Danielle Steers) and Cher mark 3/the more recent Cher/Star (played by Samantha Ivey tonight)

This show is jam packed with many of Cher’s big hits intertwined with the story of her rise to fame, including some of the less glamourous bits. Cher as represented throughout the years is split between the 3 Cher characters, although the 2 not playing the Cher at the current stage of her life story often appear to either try to talk sense in to the current one or to join in duets. Young Cher remains in love with Sonny throughout and wants Cher at all ages to return to him after they have broken up. It all sounds a little confusing and odd for a stage show but it really works.

Throw in 35 of her hits (Yes 35!!!) including; If I could turn back time, The Shoop Shoop song, I got you babe, Bang, bang, Believe, Gypsys (as spelt in her song title, although I desperately want to correct it!), tramps and thieves, Just like Jesse James, Strong enough, Heart of stone, A song for the lonely and a mash up at the end and it’s a foot tapping hit.

The set remained the same until right at the very end. There were 24 mannequin heads on shelves on each side of the stage with a different Cher style wig on each, with rows and rows of outfit bags on rails and a grey backstage set style setting. At the end it all turns to glitter. It was quite basic but, again, it worked. There was plenty going on with the actors without the need to make big set changes. As the years move on they are shown in different ways on the stage. These varied from numbers on huge wheeled in mirrors, to mannequins with the numbers on

Although I like Cher’s songs, I hadn’t realised the full story of Cher’s life and career prior to seeing this so was fascinated by her story. I didn’t know any of her earlier life; that she was picked on for being a ‘half-breed’ while growing up due to her father being Armenian and that she ended up moving schools frequently. She was also severely dyslexic and ended up leaving school still unable to read properly. She was only 16 when she met Sonny (played by Guy Woolf tonight) and her career launched. I also didn’t know about the highs and lows of her love life nor of her comedy show era but elements of this were included throughout with digs and tongue in cheek jokes. I ended up googling whether she’d done an infomercial, just to check! It was also horrendous to find out about some of the sexism she’d encountered, particularly in her earlier career. It was an amazing insight into her life and her resilience and bounce back as well as reminding me of many of her songs from over the six decades that she has been famous, during which she has sold over 100 million records!!!

The choreography of both the main characters and the ensemble was amazing. The costumes are suitably flamboyant and show that she was ahead of her time for outfits for her shows, including a rather skimpy one for the 1970s, even though we’d not think so these days. The final costumes for all 3 versions of Cher were amazing and suitably glitzy as per her latter song videos. One of the opening lines is that she needs to keep looking good to make the gay men feel better, a twist on a quote of hers.

If I was going to pick out something that could be improved, it could only be that the ensemble stayed in the same outfits all show, a grey sailor style set up of flares and crop tops. As the years progressed it would have been nice to see them in something different and more representative of Cher’s evolving style.

All 3 people playing Cher had different Cher mannerisms and characteristics. It was Danielle Steers as Lady (Cher 2) whose vocals and mannerisms stood out to me. She totally nailed the Cher vocal range. For acting it was Millie O’Connell who excelled playing the earliest Cher, who was nervous about show business and so showed awkwardness. She was also the one who looked most Cher like to me.

Sam Ferriday played a number of characters, including both Greg Allman and Rob Camilleti, yet the acting alongside the costume and wig changes were so good that you’d not have realised if not for the programme!

The Alhambra currently looks even more grand than normal as it is all up lit on approach. It’s easy to find and we parked for just £1 (all evening after 6pm) in the car park behind the National Science and Media Museum just down the road.

I really enjoyed the show and it achieved a well deserved standing ovation at the end. The whole audience were really buzzing when talking about it both during the interval and as we left at the end.

Rating: I rate it a well deserved 5/5

Tickets cost from £20 to £49.50 (inclusive of booking fee)
The Cher Show is on at Bradford Alhambra between 25th and 29th October 2022.
For more information or to book tickets visit www.bradford-theatres.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01274 432000
Bradford Theatres, The Alhambra Theatre, Morley Street, Bradford, BD7 1AJ
For further tour dates please visit; https://cheronstage.com/tour-dates