CHER at the MGM Grand - HBO special

I taped this from the HBO concert performed live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, shown in 1999 which had stereo simulation and closed captioning for the hearing impaired. This was presented in Dolby surround.

The beginning of this ninety minute video is images and clips of CHER on the large television screen behind the stage. Between these shots the audience was shown cheering for the arrival of CHER.

The wait was not long with CHER making her entrance onto the stage and coming down the stairs to the stage. She was dressed in black pants and long cape type jacket. Her hair had black beads around it as well and she was in boots. Cher started singing I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For . My favorite line from this would be:

“ I have scaled these city walls
only to be with you”

While CHER is singing she is walking all around the stage in long strides and shaking her hands in the air to the audience, getting into the song. She seemed to be living the words in the song, “ Yes I’m still running ”. There are two back up female singers with male and female dancers on stage through out the performance.

The next song CHER sings is For All or Nothing, with six dancers on stage in animal type outfits, they almost seemed like they were lions.

CHER then talks to the audience asking them to stop clapping or she will get a swelled head. She then mentions if that happens she would have to go out and buy all new wigs! Cher jokingly tells the crowd that what she is wearing is her natural hair color and many of the wigs she will be wearing are of her natural hair color.

The lights on stage are then raised while CHER starts walking to various sections calling out which one is filled with Tramps, Gypsies or Thieves. Cher announces that there are thirty-five years of stuff to fit in the show for the night so she does not want to tick anyone off. Cher thought perhaps HBO marries CHER and marries Cirque de Solei so why not call this concert Cher De Solei. Then Cher decides on “The Cher Extravaganza”. I did see that one other concert was called that so I opted not to use that for my title of this review since that was held at The Mirage.

The next song was entitled, The Power with a long-haired man suddenly appearing on stilts who I presume had The Power CHER sang “ The Power drives me crazy “. The dancers appeared in clothing with hoods over their heads pushing tall lamps about. Then there was dancing and they took off the capes and seemed to drag on while we waited for CHER to re-appear.

The lights get all dark while the audience waits to see how she arrives and what she is wearing. This wig was a long black one that appears to be short hair in front until you see the ponytail in back. She had black slim pants with thigh high boots and a sash around the waist with a beige body suit, almost cat like.

CHER sings I Found Someone “to take away the heartache”. I found the lighting to be poor in this segment with the dancers moving the lamps around and getting in the way of CHER. There was an assortment of clips from the Sonny & Cher Show once the song was over with loads of costumes from Cher’s past performances.

Again the stage is dark, and the audience first sat down then up again until Cher makes that grand entrance. This time she is risen from underneath the stage wearing a long white dress with flowing black hair. Cher has the sequences on her eyes but no jewelry around the neck, arms or on her ears. The song Cher sings is the Way of Love . While she is walking around the stage she is also holding up her dress and it distracts from the performance, although I did get a nice shot of her shoes and some foot action.

When the song is over there is some chanting going on and there is a Medley of songs next starting with Half Breed where a woman struts her stuff decked in feathers on her head and CHER gets to point to her during the line “a cherokee”. This gal goes up to the top of the stage and down the way CHER entered and the music starts for CHER to sing Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves. Well of course another woman comes along the stage to cheer on the audience, must be a tramp. The last song of this three part Medley is Dark Lady .

During the earlier scenes with the male dancers I saw lots of sweat pouring off their foreheads while they were close to Cher and sometimes when the camera was close up she did appear to be a bit miffed. The lighting was really off at times and I sensed this bothered her.

Yet another set of characters appear on stage in colored wigs dancing around while CHER is doing an outfit change. This is quite boring for me and after a few minutes CHER appears in beaded hair and clothing that looks more comfortable. She sings Take Me Home and almost seems to want to get home herself and off the stage, or was that my imagination.

A nice compilation of movie clips is shown next on the large television screen, Mask, Suspect, Silkwood, The Witches of Eastwick, Mermaids and Moonstruck are all shown. Next someone named Malcolm is sitting at the piano singing a duet with CHER, After All . Cher is now in black pants, lacey tops and short black hair.

When the song is over Cher chats with the audience about the next song, Walking in Memphis . She states that it has a sad beginning but a cool ending. She thinks this song bombed but not as bad as her infomercial and jokes about how in the video for this song she dresses like Elvis and actually becomes Elvis. She sings the song to the backdrop of the video warning all gay guys to not fall in love with her as the young Elvis she portrayed in the video.

During this song and the next Cher is sitting on a stool looking more relaxed. Once this segment is over she introduces the band, both good boys and bad boys so she says.

There are three more songs and then my two favorites, If I Could Turn Back Time and Believe . The encore is the last song and it seemed to drag on for a long time before I got to hear this song. The costume changes are great but the lapse in time with the boring dancers loses some of the anticipation for me.

This is available new at http://www.samgoody.com for VHS $16.99 and DVD selling for $22.99. A used video sells for $6.99 at http://www.half.com or used DVD at http://www.half.com for $16.50.

For any CHER fan this is a nice addition for your music/video library. Cher is a unique individual with flawless beauty, I never saw a wrinkle on her face! You get a chance to see her personality sparkle besides her eye makeup.

While there are many artists that cross over from music to the movies, CHER is in a class all her own and no one can compare to her achievements.