'West Side Story' with Cher playing all the roles is the video you didn't know you needed today

Thanks to my friend Rose, I learned today that not only did Cher perform a medley of songs from West Side Story for a TV special, but she also played all the roles. Thanks to YouTube, this brilliance is available for all to see.

Sure enough, it’s exactly as billed, it’s Cher from 1978, performing all the roles in the show. It’s perfection and quintessential Cher.

This comes from her Cher…Special which originally aired in April of 1978. Other segments include guests Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart, cast as neighbors in an apartment building, performing their hit songs "Two Doors Down" (Parton) and "Hot Legs" (Stewart); Cher and Dolly having a conversation consisting entirely of song titles and lyrics from pop songs; and Cher working by day in a boring secretarial job but dancing at night in the discos.

It was honored with a Technical Emmy Award for "Best Achievement in Lighting Direction". It also received an Emmy nomination for "Best Art Direction for a Comedy-Variety or Musical Special" and Dolly Parton was also nominated for an Emmy in the category of "Best Supporting Actress in a Variety or Musical Special"

The show actually begins on a somewhat poignant note. Cher steps into the spotlight, made up to look like a younger version of herself with her hair in pigtails. The young Cher sits on the floor and tells her mother that she is upset because she is not blonde and she says that all the pretty girls have blonde hair and blue eyes. Her mother tells her daughter that she is beautiful and someday she will realize just how special she really is.

Cher tells her mother that she will try to understand and explains that she got into the record albums so that she could learn the songs from West Side Story for school. When her mother asks Cher what part she is going to play, Cher replies, "all of them".

Here’s the clip.