Cher is an icon.

Larger than life, really.

So when we had an opportunity to see her show at Caesars Palace tonight, we seized it. Along with a couple thousand other geezers (and gays).

Ironic, really, because my college-student nephew and I have been having late-night conversations about his insistence that Sonny Bono was actually murdered. And my belief that it would have been logistically difficult to pull off an assassination on a public ski slope. (You can Google all the conspiracy details. Too bad you can’t Google our phone conversations, they’ve been even better.)

But back to Cher.

Our seats were so good we could practically see each individual bead on her Bob Mackie gowns. And yes, many of them look like they’ve been recycled from old tours. Like that black lingerie-thing that she wore 19 years ago. True.

Ok, so she has an incredible body. Incredible. Yes, I’m sure that she’s had work done on it but it’s more than that. Just a beautiful, youthful body. Which she’s fond of displaying, still, in all those tiny less-is-more costumes. I think it might be time to retire those, Cher, if you’re reading this. You’re hot, but you’re 63 and those days are over. You’ve been performing for 45 years. More would be more, I think.

However gorgeous her body is, the work done on her face definitely has moved her into the cyborg category. Lips, eyes, skin, all eternally and strangely youthful. We still got a glimpse of the old Cher personality, but her face bore little resemblance to the Cher we knew from Sonny & Cher days.

The show was a typical Las Vegas extravaganza with killer dancers and quite a few clips from the old Sonny and Cher Show, so it was easy to compare her sound then and now. As a young performer, her voice had nowhere near the power and resonance it has now.

It was a great show and a wonderful cap to our couple of days in Las Vegas.