A Cher Musical Is Working Its Way to Broadway

The Dark Lady and the Great White Way—together at last!
From: NewNowNext

 Get ready theater queens: a musical about Cher’s life is inching closer to Broadway.

The icon herself has been itching to get her story onto the stage for several years, and met with veteran writer Rick Elice to discuss some ideas. Now, the New York Post is reporting Elice is finally turning in a first draft of the script next month to producer Jeffrey Seller—who produced a little show called Hamilton. (Maybe you heard of it?)

 “They may pack me in a van and have me carted away when they see what I’ve done with her life,” teases Elice, who has penned the libretto for hits like Peter and the Starcatcher and Jersey Boys. “Or I’ll start doing what [“Gypsy” writer] Arthur Laurents always said about musicals, ’They don’t get written. They get rewritten.'”

The hard part of the job, he says, is finding new elements about one of the most famous women on the planet.

“Her life is so wildly documented. There is not much we don’t know about her. I was not a fanatical Cher fan, but when I started working on this show I was surprised at how much I knew.”

According to the Post, the musical will incorporate hits like “I Got You Babe,” “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” and “Believe” and “will take audiences through Cher’s life as a child, as the wife of Sonny Bono, and as the woman who finds success—and legendary status—on her own.” Three different actresses will play the singer at various points in her life.”

 We’re devastated that rumors about Cher actually appearing in the show have been dispelled. One only time she appeared on Broadway was in the stage version of Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean in 1982.

Elice was forced to stop work on Cher: The Musical last year to tend to his husband, acclaimed actor Roger Rees, who was dying from brain cancer. Rees passed away in July and, three months later, Cher called and urged him to get back to work and invited him to spend time with her in California.

“I thought, if Roger were here, the first thing he’d say is, ’Get on the plane and go to Cher’s house already!’ I mean, if you’re going to rejoin the human race, why not do it with Cher?”