EDMONTON -- Opening soon: CherWorld Theme Park and Casino - all Cher, all the time ... Don't be surprised. The 53-year-old diva's show in Skyreach Centre last night was a classic case of style over substance - the most expensive cheese this side of Las Vegas. But the style was so dazzling and so over-the-top that it hardly mattered. No expense was spared on effects, set design, production, choreography, costumes - you name it. This was no pop concert. It was musical theatre - and very entertaining. More than 12,000 fans were kept on their feet for fear of missing a single moment of Cher's ever-mutating spectacle. After an infomercial-style video to get things started, Cher emerged on a rising platform to sing a disco rendition of U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. The first version of the stage was the bridge of a pirate ship. The star was decked out in her "Braveheart meets Bozo the Clown" outfit, as she put it. Following All Or Nothing, a throbbing disco blast from her new album, Believe, she addressed the crowd: "Well, here I am." Quite an understatement. She was here, all right - bold, brash and, forgive the cliche, larger than life. Her mere presence filled the arena as much as her distinctive bray of a voice. The concert was peppered with interludes, featuring the talents of six dancers who wouldn't be out of place in Cats. This, of course, was to give Cher time for her numerous costume changes. After her disco Elizabeth I getup - and a medieval floor show straight out of Storytime Theatre - she returned briefly as a pirate, and then doffed her ridiculous hat and jacket to reveal some sort of post-apocalyptic rubber suit to sing We All Sleep Alone. She also came out in a white gown, and later, draped herself in some absurd tinsel outfit. It was four decades of Mr. Blackwell's worst-dressed list right here in the Big Onion ... wait a minute, this isn't the fashion page, is it? It's easy to forget Cher was performing a musical concert. The effects and costumes were frequent distractions from the songs (they probably cost a lot more, too). I'm sure the talk of the town today will be what she wore - not what she sang. In any case, Cher promised to "go all the way back and all the way forward." After focusing on Believe for the first part of the show, she kept her word. A video presentation of highlights from the old Sonny and Cher show drew cheers on its own, followed by the heartfelt ballad The Way of Love, presumably sung to Sonny Bono's memory. The '60s done with in such short order, it was onto the next decade! As the stage morphed into a disco lounge - complete with a giant lava lamp - Cher delivered a medley of '70s hits like Half Breed and Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. Needless to say, there were ample visuals to go along with it. Spanning four decades of hits, this concert celebrated all the cheesy excesses of dance music - for which this star has been a bellwether. Wherever disco goes (and no, it will never be dead), somehow Cher will be there. In stark contrast to the headliner's ponderous production, opening act Cyndi Lauper needed nothing but her band. She was a special-effect all by herself. Not only is she a fantastic singer, she performs with joy, wit and boundless energy. Cher made it look effortless, but you could tell that Lauper was going for it all the way. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, she frequently went into the crowd, cavorted across the stage, made easy banter in her Laverne and Shirley New York accent, kicked off her shoes and basically appeared as though she had as much fun - if not more - than the fans. Like Cher, much of Lauper's set consisted of hammering dance beats, but the old hits went over big: Cheers obliterated a mellow performance of Time After Time before the song was even finished, and her encore was a double shot of Disco Inferno and Girls Just Want To Have Fun. She was excellent - a great way to make her Edmonton debut.