Seattle Gay News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Issue 27, Volume 42, July 4, 2014
Cher turns back time at Key Arena Cyndi Lauper celebrates Pride Getty
Getty
by Albert Rodriguez SGN A&E Writer CHER WITH CYNDI LAUPER KEY ARENA June 28
Cyndi Lauper
She’s Cher. She says, does and wears what she wants because she’s Cher. And at the age of 68, when most people are settling into sunny retirement homes, the mega entertainer is parading on stage in skimpish outfits, self-promoting herself as an icon (which she is, by the way), singing to thousands of fans, surrounding herself with muscular backup dancers, and still kicking, literally, in highheeled boots. She might be older, but that’s not holding her back one bit. For her sold-out appearance that landed right in the middle of Pride weekend, the global star opened her Key Arena concert with “Woman’s World,” standing atop a pillar in a shimmy bejeweled get-up with nude tone peekaboo cut-outs and a peacock feather headdress. She removed the headdress for the second number, “Strong Enough,” one of her hits from 1998’s Believe album. “And what’s your granny doing tonight?” said Cher, after revealing her age to the audience and telling them
Cher
that she had just stood on a 20-foot platform in nothing more than dental floss. She spoke to the crowd for about 10 minutes, reminding them about her first farewell tour 11 years ago, which swept through Seattle twice and Everett once, and joked about looking like a transvestite piñata. In great physical shape, Cher also told everyone that she can still fit into the revealing outfit worn in the “If I Could Turn Back Time” music video. “Take that, Katy Perry!” she exclaimed with a broad smile. The 2 hour-plus performance featured music from throughout Cher’s career, from 1967’s “The Beat Goes On,” in which she strutted around in a glittery cherry-red short dress and black-white puffy shawl, to her current smash and title of her tour, “Dressed to Kill,” starting the song inside a chandelier in a sexy black one-piece with matching headdress and fishnet stockings, then ending it by biting into a dancer’s neck with vampire fangs. “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” and “Dark Lady” were performedamidstavintagecircustheme, complete with show announcer and man on stilts. She dueted with the late Sonny Bono, shown in black and white footage, on “I Got You Babe.” see CHER & CYNDI page 4
Ruby is Queen!
Cabaret artist Victor Janusz
tells “Obama tales” and reveals his own “(Nordstrom) Mannequin Blues” in his one-man show An interview with Ruby Lewis Courtesy of Victor Janusz
www.imdb.com
HANDS SOLO: Pianoman
Victor Janusz
HANDS SOLO: PIANOMAN VICTOR JANUSZ ACT’S CENTRAL HEATING LAB ACT THEATRE July 10-12 & 18-20 “Accompanying himself with a soulful, jazz hand...Janusz takes us on a vivid journey, and proves to be a masterful monologist, abetted by Lori Larsen’s deft pacing.” – Cabaret Scenes magazine Longtime Seattle Cabaret art-
ist Victor Janusz is opening up and telling his own hilarious and heartfelt story the best way he knows how: through song. This new one-man show includes many familiar songs, five original pieces by Janusz* and a dozen stories with corresponding music. In HANDS SOLO: Pianoman, Janusz recounts his life at the keys in hilarious detail and shares the tale of his “partnership with the piano” from age 8 to the present day. Learn of how he was fired by
his piano teacher at age 8 (“Without A Song”); hear what it was like Ruby Lewis to be sexually confused in L.A. Showtime’s “Masters of Sex.” in the ‘70s (“Deacon Blues”); and by Eric Andrews-Katz She’s been in films and has been what NYC “Method Acting” is re- SGN A&E Writer seen on stage since age 12 when ally like. Wonder about his surreal WE WILL ROCK YOU she performed in The Sound of nine-year stint at Nordstrom play5TH AVENUE THEATRE Music. But the young girl from ing for mannequins (“Mannequin July 8-13 Kentucky has grown up and is Blues”); marvel at his Mexican currently playing the role of Scarepiphany with the patron saint Ruby Lewis has earned the Triamouche in the musical, We Will (“Guadalupe”). Ruminate with ple Crown of performing. She’s Rock You – based on the music him over the 20 year wait for Marperformed in a recurring role on of Queen and Ben Elton. Rocksee Janusz page 5 “Desperate Housewives,” and see RUBY page 8