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Cher and Cher-alike: Broadway in Tampa

Bill DeYoung

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New York's Ella Perez, at right, plays the youngest version of Cher in "The Cher Show," visiting Tampa this week. Publicity photos.

It won a pair of Tony Awards, but the Broadway run of The Cher Show was relatively brief – fewer than 300 performances over its nine-month residency in 2018 and ’19.

Like its namesake, the ageless single-named pop diva, The Cher Show defies time and taste, and it has turned into a runaway success in the U.K., and now the United States, as a touring production.

The “Broadway tour” of The Cher Show reaches Tampa’s Straz Center this week, for performances Jan. 14-19 in Morsani Hall.

The flashy, elaborately staged show is a jukebox musical, with approximately 30 songs tracing Cher’s extraordinary career from the 1960s to … well, the present day (Cher, 76, announced her retirement in November). She is portrayed by three singing actresses, each representing her in a different era.

Ella Perez

Ella Perez plays the “first” Cher, known in the show as ‘Babe.’ “I take you through Cher’s childhood and upbringing, up till meeting Sonny and recording ‘I Got You Babe,’ and getting super-big over in the U.K.,” Perez tells the Catalyst. “And ‘Lady’ takes over around the time of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. The glamorous Cher with the Bob Mackie outfits. And ‘Star’ goes into her movie career and all of that.”

But there’s a twist. “The thing that’s special about all this is the three Chers, we all talk to each other and interact the entire show. I don’t just do my beginning part and go – I come back the entire show. We all sing together. We put each other in our place.

“You know how you kind of wish you could talk to your younger self, or talk to the future version of yourself? That’s literally what we’re doing. We joke around with each other. We honestly sometimes clock each other, we insult each other. With Cher’s humor, of course.”

A native of Long Island, New York, Perez is entering her second season as a member of the Cher Show cast. The current tour continues through May, and is expected to globe-trot after that.

Perez graduated from The State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland in 2023. Although she’d been deeply involved in musical theater productions at school, The Cher Show represents her first professional job.

Right out of the box.

“I still can’t believe that it’s my reality every day,” she says. “I submitted for it already thinking it was wildly ambitious, so I tried not to get too attached to it. I can’t believe that it got this far; I literally don’t understand what I did to deserve it.

“It’s just been the coolest, wildest year of my life. A day does not go by where I don’t think about how lucky I am.”

As a kid just out of college, Perez worried that her first pro gig might be terrifically daunting. “I do remember being really, really nervous that it was going to be a company full of people who’d been doing this before,” she recalls. “My BFA was literally hot off the printer, and I was like ‘I don’t know how anything works. I’ve never done professional theater, ever – I don’t know what the rules are, I don’t know what the culture is like.’ I was so terrified that first day of rehearsal that was going to be the baby, and everyone was going to know what they were doing.

“But it was the most welcoming, warm group of people I’ve ever met.

“To be so honest, none of us really knew what we were doing half the time. That was really comforting. And I really felt so welcome, after Day One. I remember walking out of that first rehearsal day going ‘I’m going to be OK.’”

With Lorenzo Pugliese as Sonny Bono.

Perez wasn’t even born when Sonny and Cher had their hit records, and their TV series. Or when “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” and “Half-Breed” ruled the airwaves. Or when Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman (he and Sonny are both portrayed in the musical). Or when she made movies like Silkwood, Mask and Moonstruck (winning a Best Actress Academy Award for the latter).

“She was always in my life,” says Perez. “She’s a prominent pop culture figure to me. I wasn’t always aware of how she has done literally everything from film, TV and music. ‘Believe’ is a very nostalgic song for me, because it reminds me of my childhood, from like the early 2000s. I just remember hearing that song definitely everywhere.

“And my dad played old Cher all the time, from the ‘Turn Back Time’ era. He loved that music.”

One thing Perez does know, and is quick to point out: Cher is the only solo artist with Billboard No. 1 singles in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2020s.

“I knew she was iconic, very funny, always wore cool clothes. But I’ve really fallen in love with her by playing this part. She is just such a badass lady.”

For more information, curtain times and tickets, visit this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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