Cher's OTT Show Receives Ovation From 'Ottawa Citizen'. Plus, Cher Dating Bruce Jenner?

Headdress-sporting Cher and red-haired supporting act Cyndi Lauper performed in Ottawa, Canada last night as part of the former's colourful and over-the-top 'Dressed To Kill Tour'. Ottawa Citizen's Tony Lofaro reviewed the night's near-sold-out show:

With more than a dozen costume changes, over-the-top-production numbers and a catalogue of pop songs that far surpasses most singers, Cher is a spectacle unto herself. And Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre, a chatty Cher proved to a nearly sold-out crowd that she’s not really done with performing.

She loves the spotlight too much and her legion of fans love her, too, and sang along — to her early songs with Sonny Bono, up to her hits from her successful solo career. Cher has said her current tour, titled Dressed to Kill, is her final, final farewell tour. But don’t bet on it.

“I’m far too old to be doing this,” Cher lamented, but her fans weren’t buying it. Cher can never say goodbye, her fans just won’t let her.

At 67, and still looking fabulous under the wigs, makeup and flashy costumes, Cher is a pop diva supreme with a timeless quality and an over-worked Vegas patter with just enough titillating sexiness to send everybody home giddy.

Who else could open a 110-minute show looking like she was the Queen of the Nile, a Cleopatra goddess lowered from the rafters singing Woman’s World? But the Cleopatra apparel was just the teaser as Cher trotted out costume after costume, reflective of her songs. Like a flowing skirt for Gypsies Tramps and Thieves, a gigantic Indian headdress for Half-Breed and a shiny cutaway tux for This is Burlesque.

When she came out encased in a towering Trojan horse, sporting a blond wig, a shiny gold costume and singing Take It Like a Man you imagined being in a Biblical epic. Low-key restraint was never Cher’s bag and this concert reeked of excess, sometimes to the detriment of the show. The overblown staging seem to overwhelm the songs and there was a constant beehive of activity onstage, especially when acrobatic dancers were swirling overhead on circular metal cylinders.

A video montage of her partnership with Sonny was a nostalgic dip into the past and ghoulishly unsettling as she accompanied the photo cavalcade singing The Beat Goes On and I Got You Babe. The best moments, for me, came when Cher toned things down, and when she sang a stirring version of Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis that signalled her love for Elvis Presley.

But subtle is not what you expect at a Cher concert. And she didn’t disappoint, appearing in a see-through sequin black outfit on If I Could Turn Back Time number, and with a stringy shiny gown on the show-stopper Believe. In a fitting finale, Cher soared over the crowd standing on a glittery throne suspended by wires and reaching the front and back of the arena while performing I Hope You Find It.

Don’t look for Cher to ever come down from those lofty heights.

Opening the show was Cyndi Lauper, a headliner in her own right many years ago, but touring as a supporting act. No one makes a more dramatic entrance than Cher, but Lauper challenged her, appearing down on the floor among the fans.

She was in fine form, entertaining as she performed many of her biggest hits, from her 80s pop classics like She Bop, I’ll Kiss You, Time after Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. There was also a little bit of electro pop in many of her songs and she proved that she can dance pretty well, swinging around onstage à la Stevie Nicks.

Her 40-minute set was predictable yet fun and Lauper was engaged in the songs that she’s sung a million times. After she bowled over the crowd with an energetic version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, she came back with the ballad Hatful of Stars.

It’s obvious too, Lauper has no intention of saying goodbye either.

Cher Dating Bruce Jenner? Online publication Showbiz Spy reported that Cher and athlete-turned-reality star Bruce Jenner have become "BFFs" since the latter's separation from wife Kris Jenner.

The publication reported: "Bruce Jenner has a new superstar BFF - Cher! The reality star and Olympic legend has been in regular contact with the pop singer."

Bruce Jenner, Tom Cruise
and his then-girlfriend Cher
in 1985. Note:
all three were dyslexic.

After claiming that an unnamed source had informed them that the two tabloid-targets have been "chatting on the phone and texting non-stop", Showbiz Spy added that "the two have known eachother since the 80's and have met up numerous times since he and wife Kris Jenner separated!"

Fellow tabloid Celebrity Dirty Laundry went one step further by claiming that the two are dating: "Oh boy. I have to admit, the thought of Cher hooking up with Bruce Jenner scares the crap out of me. Apparently the two have actually been really good friends since the mid 1980′s and it’s a friendship that has gotten even closer since Bruce split with Kris Jenner last year. The two have only gotten closer since Cher has ventured out on her current tour and according to the May 5th print edition of Globe magazine once Bruce is truly available and his divorce is settled she would love to date him.

"Cher has always had a crush on the Olympic champion and she is even a fan of his longer hair because it reminds her of Sonny Bono’s do’ from years ago. Obviously Cher has heard all of the rumors that have been circulating about Bruce and his sexuality. It seems possible that he is indeed in the process of completing gender reassignment surgery and we do know for sure that he has had a laryngeal shave and might be taking some sort of hormones.

"Supposedly Cher simply accepts Bruce for whomever he chooses to be but if he does become a woman do you think she’ll still be hoping for that romantic relationship? I mean this woman in her heyday was considered a maneater and she always seems to be on the prowl for another boy toy. Maybe she thinks that her relationship with Bruce could somehow prevent him from becoming a woman? Can you imagine Cher and Bruce actually hooking up or do you think that this is a friendship that will never cross any other lines?"