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Cher puts on show from top to bottom

BR stop No. 242 on farewell tour

By JOHN WIRT (theadvocate.com)

Elvis, Madonna, Prince, Garbo, Pavarotti, Satchmo, Liberace -- stars so famous and unique they need only a single name. Another name, Cher, belongs on that list, too.

Liberace, the flamboyant pianist who reveled in his glittering, on-stage finery, showed up in one of the dozens of vintage TV clips featured in Cher's Friday night spectacular at the Baton Rouge River Center. In the clip, Liberace couldn't help but see that he and Cher were birds of a feather, two entertainers who made flashy costumes and stage craft part of their showbiz personas.

If the late Liberace were still trilling piano keys today, chances are Cher's lavish farewell tour would put a twinkle his eye.

Making a grand entrance at 9 p.m., the regally attired Cher descended from the River Center ceiling on a glittering chandelier. She quickly shed her silver and white robe, revealing one of those form-exposing outfits for which she's famous.

A star since 1965, Cher is 58 years old, but she wore the years well, looking good and stepping lively with a troupe of seven dancers. Her frequent costume changes alone would wear out most 58-year-olds.

The show's opening number wasn't a Cher song, but it fit her nonetheless. The restless lyrics of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" suggest that Cher, enduring star though she is, has even more ambitions to fulfill.

Maybe that's why, as she told the River Center audience, her Baton Rouge show is stop 242 of her farewell tour.

"Thank you," she gushed as the crowd greeted her with sustained cheering. "No, no, no. I don't deserve it."

Big name or not, she seemed sincere, in words and the way she waved, childlike with two hands, from the front edges of each side of the stage. Her self-effacing story about a chandelier malfunction that ruined her entrance in Cleveland further humanized this famous woman.

Despite her early flashes of humility, Cher is clearly proud of her multitiered music, film and TV career, which was seen in video clips throughout the concert.

The still-competitive, still-hungry Cher also had words for Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and other younger singers said to be hot.

"I just have one thing to say to all these new girls," she said. "Follow this, you bitches."

Cher's 90-minute performance covered decades of hits, though Sonny & Cher's first No. 1, "I Got You Babe," appeared only in a clip-filled video montage that served as a homage to her late partner, Sonny Bono. Cher and her band performed bombastic '80s hits "I Found Someone" and "If I Could Turn Back Time" in faithful, full-length renditions while a trio of big '70s numbers -- "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves," "Half Breed" and "Dark Lady" -- were condensed into suite form.

Cher's low voice has never been a beautiful instrument, but she succeeds through well-chosen material and her ability to live the songs. She becomes the half-breed girl, the dark lady and the woman who wants to turn back time and believe.

"Believe," a throbbing dance anthem that returned Cher to the top of the world's music charts as recently as 1999, plus an eruption of silver confetti shot from the stage, put the cap on her visit to Baton Rouge.

"God bless you," she said, waving farewell with two hands.

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