The Beat Goes On: It Takes Three Actresses to Play Cher

Morgan Scott was understandably excited Monday morning over the phone from the Coachella Valley, where The Cher Show had just wound up five performances over the weekend in Palm Desert. The area is home not only to one of Cher’s famed exes, Sonny Bono, who was both mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. representative for a decade (1988-1998), but also Bob Mackie, the famed fashion designer and costumier who dressed Cher for decades, along with such other entertainment icons as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, Judy Garland, and many others.

Mackie, who won a Tony Award for Costume Design for a Musical for The Cher Show in 2018, made it out to Sunday’s show and posed for pictures with the cast backstage and the performance. 

“Oh, my God, it was so great,” exclaimed Scott, who portrays “Star,” one of three iterations of Cher – along with the younger “Babe” and “Lady” – that illustrate the singer-actress’ evolution over the years. It’s Scott’s first role in a national tour, and the musical’s first roadshow across the country. “Honestly, I am pinching myself every day. Just being able to play the icon that is Cher is surreal. Having Bob Mackie at the show yesterday was even more unreal. We just could not believe it. I mean, it’s such an honor to be able to wear his designs on a daily basis. Meeting him was just incredible.” 

All of the iconic Mackie costumes for Cher are part of the show, including the famous “revenge gown” with the huge feather headdress for the 1986 Oscars, with the actors donning some 400 different costumes as well as dozens of wigs over the course of the musical, Scott said. In fact, some reviewers in New York suggested the costume changes drive the plot, as Cher continues to crack wise and deliver both cautionary advice and consolation. 

But Scott takes a different point of view, suggesting that audiences are lapping up the story arc and interplay between the Babe, Lady, and Star as much as they do the 35 hit songs they deliver. 

“I think it’s a really cool way to show all the parts of Cher,” she said. “We get to see moments of her life with her mother and where the dreams started, the period when she moved through her much more sassy and confident era with Sonny, and then Cher the way she is now. But it’s not just a chronological thing. You get to see how they relate, and that they’re also part of who Cher is today, which is why all three [versions] are interwoven throughout the entire show.” 

Morgan, for whom getting involved in The Cher Show has brought up “core memories” of the VH1 videos of Cher’s early days that she watched growing up, said she’s most moved by the fact that Cher is still not only active but still reinventing herself at 77. Cher just released a Christmas album full of duets in October, proving that the artist who has sold 100 million albums, owns three-fourths of an EGOT (lacking only, ironically, a Tony, as the actress who played Star won in 2019), and remains the only singer to have a No. 1 single in six consecutive decades is still embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. 

“The end of the show isn’t really an end,” she said. “It’s not a tribute show, it’s not about impersonation, but rather embodying her and representing all the human qualities that we can all relate to. Yes, she’s an icon, but she’s still a human being.” 

The Cher Show kicks off American Theatre Guild’s 2023-24 Broadway in Santa Barbara season at the Granada Theatre on December 6-7. Visit granadasb.org for tickets and more information.