This story was published in Metro on Tuesday, July 16, 2002.

In this year's "final tour," Cher delivers good, dumb fun

By Kevin C. Johnson
Post-Dispatch Pop Music Critic

As far as last tours go, Cher's was pretty much like her last tour.

The legendary pop icon's farewell tour, which came to the Savvis Center on Monday night to a packed house, was style-heavy and substance-free, appropriate since that sums up most of Cher's music history. It also describes her last tour, the one for "Believe" a few years ago.

"Believe" played out like a final tour, with its focus on five decades of music, the costumes and wigs that came with it, the vintage Cher clips and all the trips down memory lane. Monday's show followed a nearly exact blueprint. The costumes and wigs may have changed, but the same general feeling, and songs, were there.

Her previous tour would've been a great way to cap her performing career. Instead, she's touring off the far less successful "Believe" knock-off "Living Proof," which is living proof Cher need not make another record.

What Cher offered during her quickly moving 100-minute concert was good, dumb fun. And where else are you going to go and find a crowd that mixes people old enough to have been adults when "I Got You Babe" was released and young enough to dance in discos to "Believe?"

After a remixed version of "If I Could Turn Back Time" introduced clips of Cher through the years, the curtain dropped to reveal the garishly garbed diva standing in a suspended chandelier, which was lowered to the stage to deliver the singer. She dropped her Bob Mackie cape and headdress so she could more easily perform U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Cher, in good voice and form, chatted with the audience for several minutes, telling them how much she enjoyed St. Louis and its fabulous homes. After dissing Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez with, "Follow this show, you (expletive)," she welcomed the crowd to the "Cher-est show on Earth."

The flurry of production numbers followed from there, including a Middle Eastern scene that brought Cher out riding a life-sized mechanical elephant with moving parts; Cher emerged from its rear-end for "All or Nothing." Dancers suspended overhead introduced "We All Sleep Alone," a big ballad that segued into a dance remix. Aeriel acrobatics accompanied "Bang Bang."

For "Strong Enough" and "If I Could Turn Back Time," Cher dressed in the revealing black number similar to the one she wore in the latter song's video. During "Half Breed," the video screens projected her singing next to '70s images of herself, and fans compared the then and now to figure out how much work she'd done on herself.

The many video montages, not one feeling unnecessary, included clips with Cher and her late ex-husband, Sonny; talk show hosts David Letterman and Barbara Walters; guests on her old variety show including the Jackson 5, Tina Turner, and Elton John; and scenes from movies like "Moonstruck" and "Silkwood" and TV's "Will and Grace." These clips came with songs like "Dark Lady," "After All," "The Way of Love" and "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves."

Cher sent fans home happy with the disco daze of "Believe," which included more aerial acrobatics.

1980s rocker Cyndi Lauper opened the concert as she did during Cher's last tour (though Lauper canceled when Cher came to town last time).

Lauper's set drew upon new and old, with latter day songs like "Sisters of Avalon" and "Still With Me" and early career smashes like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

She won many fans over when she cloaked herself with a rainbow-like gay pride banner and wished everyone a happy pride, which served as a setup for "True Colors." She said one song, "It's Hard to Be Me," was inspired by Anna Nicole Smith, and that song led into, what else, "Money Changes Everything."

Without Cher's coattails to coast on in concert, it will be interesting to see where Lauper goes next.

Published in Metro on Tuesday, July 16, 2002.