Madison Square Garden - NY Newsday Review

NY Newsday Concert Review

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Fabulous Farewell
Cher sings and wears it all in her grand exit

By Glenn Gamboa, STAFF WRITER

June 28, 2002, MUSIC REVIEW

CHER. Big! Boffo! Cher! With Cyndi Lauper. At Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and Thursday and Nassau Coliseum on Sunday. Seen Wednesday.

Cher makes her entrance dressed in a spangly Bob Mackie robe and a fur-covered, ice- princess headdress, lowered from the ceiling on a super- sized crystal chandelier - a replica of her bathroom light, she says later.

As she belts out her lucky song, U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," she is joined by a seven-piece band and a troupe of eight spinning and flipping dancers in futuristic tribal garb, all ready to sashay through Cher's glamorous 37-year career.

Over the top? Sure. But this is Cher's farewell tour, sweetie, and the queen of all that is over the top has her legacy to think about.

"I'm leaving," she tells the audience early on. "But I want to make it really hard for J.Lo and Britney Spears to come to the Garden after this show ... and I say that with all humility."

Cher's farewell tour certainly out- Britneys Britney, brimming with loads of costume changes and elaborate production numbers where dancers artistically hang upside down or dramatically swing across the stage on curtains. It's an undertaking on the scale of last year's Madonna performance-art extravaganza, except that Cher's concert was one glorious hit parade. It touched on nearly every chart-topper either onstage or in one of the many retrospective video pieces that gave her a chance to change clothes and catch her breath during the 100-minute performance.

Throughout the show, Cher was in strong voice and good spirits, declaring the evening "the Cher-est show on earth." Few singers can match her range of material, from the latest dance pop on her new "Living Proof" CD alongside the Dylan folk classic "All I Really Want to Do," the dramatic ballad "The Way of Love," the glorious disco of "Take Me Home" and the rock of "I Found Someone" and "Bang Bang." She does the swim during "The Shoop Shoop Song." She does her strut during "If I Could Turn Back Time," even resurrecting the bootylicious see- through black outfit from the video. She fills a great chestnut like "Heart of Stone" with the same stylish care that she gives her No. 1 hit "After All" or her comeback blockbuster "Believe."

Cher's been hip. She's been unhip. To her, it never really mattered. She was always herself, a true original. "This show is so good, it would be good without me," she says. Anyone who's seen her in concert knows that's not true.

Another original, Cyndi Lauper, opened the show with an impressive 50-minute set of hits and should-be hits, including the roaring new rocker "It's Hard to Be Me." Her distinctive voice is as gorgeous as ever, especially when she wraps it around ballads such as "True Colors," which drew a huge ovation after she dedicated it to Gay Pride Month, or "Time After Time," though few things are as giddy as "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."