CAPSULE REVIEW : As Herself, Cher Comes Up Short

Watching Cher go through her pop-celebrity paces Thursday night at the San Diego Sports Arena, one could only wish that she would slip into something a little more comfortable--like an alter ego.

Give Cher a role to play--the vulnerable nuclear munitions worker of “Silkwood,” say, or even a witch of Eastwick--and she suddenly becomes an artist, a conduit for stories and passions.

Singers who treat songs the way committed actors treat their characters can be conduits, too. But in a lazy hour on stage, some of which she spent singing, Cher was interested only in spotlighting what’s least substantial about herself: herself. Or at least that side of herself that is bound up in being a celebrity.

Cher’s concert was so much like a testimonial that chicken dinners should have been served. It began with a five-minute, this-is-your-life video sequence that ranged from her baby photos to her 1988 acceptance speech for the best-actress Oscar.

At mid-set came more video history, this time chronicling her partnership with former husband Sonny Bono. And, with the video screen lowering yet a third time, we got to see a montage of clips from Cher’s acting career.

Cher made a teasing joke early on about doing her concert “naked.” For all the well-toned flesh she showed as she changed from outfit to skimpy outfit, Cher had a screen to guard her--the image-making TV screen to which she owes her stardom.

Cher seldom dared to stand naked in a performing sense, with only her emotive resources and the quality of her songs to carry the performance. In one of the most annoyingly cluttered uses of choreography this side of David Bowie’s overblown 1987 “Glass Spider” tour, Cher was surrounded by seven dancers who rushed and swung about a scaffolded set which resembled the backstage rigging of a theater.

Like the video screen, the dancers served Cher as a convenient, labor-saving crutch. With all that motion around her, she could afford to move at a walk. Consequently, she never broke a sweat.

A complete review runs in Saturday’s Calendar section.