Louis B Hobson's review Celine and Cher

Marysia Trembecka bills her solo show as life’s lessons, as powered by the wisdom, music and outrageous fabulousness of Celine Dion and Cher. She uses some of these divas’ songs to talk about the women’s lives, and this is where the show sizzles. Without making any pronouncement, Trembecka recalls that Celine was just 12 years old when Rene Angelil, then 38, became her manager. He was 44 and she was 18 when they became romantically involved. She very cleverly leaves it up to us to judge. The same is true when she recalls that Sonny Bono initially took all the royalties of Cher’s songs, or that Cher’s marriage to Gregg Allman initially only lasted nine days. There is no judgement on Trembecka’s behalf.

The big problem with the show is that Trembecka is not a singer, not that she pretends to be. The songs she uses should be belted out for them to have their major effect. Trembecka is aware she is not a diva like the ladies she idolizes so she has the audience sing along with her. The lyrics appear on the screen at the back of the stage to make it all the easier.

Trembecka easily connects with the audience, which is her forte so there is a comfortable rapport throughout the 60 minutes. She has a stack of cards with song titles on them and when someone picks one she briefly explains how the song applies to the person. This is something she should spend more time with as it is great fun. Trembecka has the audience learn Celine’s famous power move, and soon everyone is pretending to be the Canadian superstar.

The show will appeal to fans of these two superstars, who probably don’t need to read the lyrics to My Heart Goes On or If I Could Turn Back Time.