Lorenzo Pugliese knew exactly one thing about Sonny Bono when he was cast to play him in “The Cher Show.”
“I knew that we’re both short Italian men,” Pugliese said. “That was enough for me. I didn't know much. Everybody knows the kind of the trope of Sonny and Cher, Sonny being shorter than Cher. But that was pretty much it.”
So Pugliese dug into Bono, reading his autobiography, watching nearly every episode of the duo’s television shows and listening to all the duo’s hits, songs that, of course, figure prominently in the jukebox musical that traces the life and music of Cheryl Sarkisian, whom Bono married in 1964 when she was just 18.
What he found was one of the most interesting characters on the Los Angeles music scene of the ’60s, a promo man, percussionist and “gofer” for “Wall of Sound” producer Phil Spector; a songwriter, who most notably co-wrote “Needles and Pins” and most Sonny & Cher hits; an entertainer who fit easily on stage and screen; and, for the last decade of his life, a politician who was mayor of Palm Springs, California, and a Republican Congressman.
So, what does Pugliese try to bring to the stage with the touring company of “The Cher Show” that will play the Lied Center for Performing Arts Tuesday and Wednesday?
“One of the important things is his voice,” he said. "He has a very distinct voice that I think people recognize. So I worked a lot on that. Then Sonny was kind of a natural entertainer. He's very funny. He's very charismatic. ... He has this really awesome kind of character trait — going into things maybe not really knowing exactly how he's going to get them done, but knowing that he's going to get them done and by just saying screw it and going for it.”
Pugliese also had to learn the now classic Sonny & Cher songs, which were hits decades before he was born.
“There are absolutely some songs that I had heard before; if I tried my darndest I wouldn't have been able to avoid them," he said. “But there were also some songs that I did not know. Actually ‘The Beat Goes On,’ I didn’t know that one. Funnily enough, that’s the title of Sonny’s autobiography.”
“When you think about it, this production takes us from Cher's childhood up through till she's 50-some years old, you can't really get one actress to play that,” Pugliese said. “What we're able to do with three different actresses is take three distinct parts of Cher’s life and get three different artists with three different kinds of interpretations of Cher. And they’re all wonderful."
While the show follows a chronological timeline, Sonny doesn’t disappear when he and Cher divorce in 1975.
“The way their careers went, they had a second go at, ‘The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour’ after they were divorced,” Pugliese said. “Of course, there’s got to be some sort of way to address Sonny’s passing, the way Cher experienced that. So it’s not just Sonny and Cher coming up as young'uns.”
That said, Sonny’s mostly a presence in the first act of the musical that captures Cher in the ’60s, a time that gives Pugliese a chance to explore the stage fashions of the era.
“There’s some wool pants and fur vests,” he said. “The costumes just in general are pretty crazy since they’re designed by Bob Mackie, one of the greatest costume designers of all time. I get to wear a lot of cool stuff. One of the shirts that I wear is actually a shirt that Sonny Bono wore.”
Does it fit?
“Oh yeah, perfectly. We’re the same height and the same size. Short Italian guys.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: "The Cher Show."
WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 12th and Q streets
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday
TICKETS: $28 to $86. Available at liedcenter.org, by phone at 402-472-4747 or at the Lied box office.
Cher in photos: See a gallery of photos from her life and career
Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com. On Twitter @KentWolgamott
If you go
WHAT: "The Cher Show."
WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 12th and Q streets
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday
TICKETS: $28 to $86. Available at liedcenter.org, by phone at 402-472-4747 or at the Lied box office.
Entertainer Sonny Bono (left) sings with his ex-wife, singer Cher, during the taping of "The Mike Douglas Show" on Jan. 22, 1979 in Los Angeles, Calif.