Monday, February 22, 1999

She looks, talks, moves and smirks like Cher

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BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jay Underwood and Renee Faia star as Sonny and Cher. | ZOOM |

        As usual, Cher steals the show. No, the No. 1 reason to watch ABC's And The Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story certainly isn't the lame impersonation of Sonny Bono by Jay Underwood, from Disney's Not Quite Human trilogy.

        It's definitely not the embarrassingly inept portrayal of David Letterman by Tom Frykman in the opening scene of the film. (It makes HBO's The Late Shift look like a documentary.)

        And it's not the goofy scenes of young Little Richard by Walter Franks, or the taciturn Christian Leffler as record producer Phil Spector.

        What makes And The Beat Goes On a pleasure is the performance of Cleveland native Renee Faia as the future pop icon.

        She doesn't miss a beat as Cher, down to the sultry voice, those big brown eyes and her exposed navel.

ON THE AIR

What: And The Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story. When: 9-11 p.m. today . Where: Channels 9, 2.

        “I have been told I look like a lot of people, and Cher was one of them,” says Ms. Faia, a 1988 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design.

        But Ms. Faia, who grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford Heights, knew she was a long-shot to star in a film about mop-haired Salvatore “Sonny” Bono and tart-tongued Cherilyn “Cher” rLaPierre.

        Ms. Faia, in her late 20s, was too young to remember the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,a top 10 TV show in 1974, until their divorce later that year broke up the act.

        She also was an unlikely choice because she has little experience as an actress. Most of her Hollywood work had been off-camera, as a costumer, set decorator and artist on Jurassic Park, Seinfeld and A Few Good Men.

        “I led a double life for a long time, until recently,” she says.

        But not after her breakthrough role. You'll be impressed how she nails Cher's smirk, her aloofness, her mercurial temper.

        And she mastered it all in two weeks, before filming started in October in the Bel Air mansion onced owned by the pop stars.

Memorized mannerisms
        Ms. Faia's cram course in Cher 101 included tapes of old Sonny and Cher Shows, their concert footage, recordings, and guest shots on Shindig, the Mike Douglas Show and David Frost Show. She also watched Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers, the special broadcast saluting Mr. Bono, who died in a skiing accident on Jan. 5, 1998.

        “I would study them with the sound off, just to get her mannerisms down, her movements and her facial gestures,” she says.

        “And then I would study it (by) not looking at the picture, but actually just listening to it,” she says.

        “Those videotapes were invaluable. When she did that special, Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers and there were a lot of tight shots on her. And I would study the movement of her lips.”

        And Ms. Faia had a perfectly big nose, the butt of several jokes in the script. But not much else was real.

        It took two actors, two voice doubles, 12 wigs and 19 noses (all for Mr. Underwood) to re-create Sonny and Cher, says executive producer Larry Thompson, the longtime friend and attorney for Mr. Bono.

        Kelly Vanhoose-Smith, an entertainer from Branson, Mo., found during a national talent search last summer, sings as Cher. Jess Harnell does Sonny's songs. And The Beat Goes On also includes some of the group's original music.

        “In one song, we start off with Jay and Renee's voice, that bleeds to Kelly and Jess' voices, and then bleeds into the (original) record,” Mr. Thompson says.

Sonny's slant
        ABC's movie may strike a sour note with Cher fans. It's decidedly from Mr. Bono's point of view, being based on his 1991 book, And The Beat Goes On. Mary Bono, his widow and successor in Congress, is co-ex ecutive producer on the film with Mr. Thompson, who represented Mr. Bono in the 1974 divorce.

        Ms. Faia does an equally convincing job of playing Cher as an insecure, frightened, innocent teen-ager, and as the tough show biz veteran who throws her husband out 10 years later.

        But the scale is decidedly tilted in Sonny's favor. He's the poor schmo working tirelessly for their success, while Cher simply seeks fame.

        “I think we tell an honest story,” Mr. Thompson says. “But it certainly was an attempt on our part to pay tribute to Sonny. The man lived through many years where he was "Sonny Bonehead.' He was thought to be the loser of the group.

        “(But) he was sort of the guiding light and the tenacity that made Sonny and Cher,” he says. “It's sort of a loving tribute in its own way. And I think she (Mrs. Bono) wanted that to be the case.”

        No kidding. Other producers would end the film with their 1987 reunion on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman.

        But this film closes with clips of Mr. Bono being sworn in for Congress by Newt Gingrich, his funeral procession and Mr. Bono's remarks from an old TV show.

        “Believe in magic,” he says, “and it will happen.”

        That philosophy applies to Ms. Faia. Even she had doubts whether she could play a pop icon — until the first day she tested wigs and makeup.

        “That's when it kind of freaked me out,” Ms. Faia says. “I caught a glance in the mirror with the first wig, and it was startling.”

        She can honestly say: I've got you babe.

        John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.

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