Singer-actress Lisa McClowry, staging her Cher production “The Beat Goes On” at Bethlehem’s Wind Creek Event Center on Thursday, will take fans on a journey through the icon’s storied life and career.

The show, featuring first-person storytelling and Cher video footage, tells the empowering icon’s story, from her early life and years with Sonny Bono to her solo career, films, fashion and cultural impact.

“The Beat Goes On,” named after Sonny & Cher’s same-titled 1967 hit single, may sound like a tribute show, though McClowry, who emulates the Goddess of Pop’s contralto sound, begs to differ.

“I don’t look at it as a tribute show; that’s too broad a label,” said McClowry, who despite winning Tribute Artist of the Year at the 2023 Josie Music Awards does not grasp the term “tribute artists.”

Rather, the classically trained soprano calls the 90-minute, first-person multimedia show “a theatrical concert experience. I don’t see myself as an impersonator. This is another great role.”

“The Beat Goes On” includes eight costume changes, wigs, and Bob Mackie replicas or Mackie-style fashion. The setlist includes the title song, “I Got You Babe,” “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves,” “Half-Breed,” “If I Could Turn Back Time,” “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” and “Believe.”

McClowry, who has staged “The Beat Goes On” in 46 states and strives to do 75 shows a year, admires the Oscar winner’s self-awareness, boldness, confidence, humor, vulnerability and authenticity.

“The audience sees the heartbreak, resilience, joy, because she’s lived it in public without apologies. She proved longevity comes from substance and spectacle. It’s powerful.”

During “Bonding Moments,” McClowry — quoted in AARP’s May/June magazine article celebrating Cher’s 80th birthday — breaks the fourth wall and interacts with the crowd members. She hopes audience members, a select number of which she invites on stage, see themselves in the performance

Born in Chicago, McClowry started playing piano, auditorily, at age 7. Music influences included Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, with the artist performing songs by rockers Pat Benatar, Patty Smyth and Heart’s Ann Wilson in her first band, Mischief, which she joined at age 15.

McClowry, a Columbia College Chicago graduate, has made a full-time living as a performer since around 1992. For 20 years, she honed her craft at Chicago’s Redhead Piano Bar.

Collaborators through the years include longtime musical partner Thomas Linsk, plus Jim Peterik, founder of rock band Survivor, and The Buckinghams’ Carl Giammares.

McClowry, a 2011 International Vocalist of the Year nominee at Canada’s smooth jazz Wave Awards, has explored various genres across four 2001-2012 studio albums, an EP and miscellaneous projects.

In 2000, two animated films featured McClowry’s voice. Ballad “Through the Eyes of a Child” played in “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,” while in “Rugrats in Paris,” she voiced a princess.

McClowry, an abstract and multimedia artist, also has played lead roles in theater productions and appeared in “Vampire’s Dance,” a 2013 segment in filmmaker Tom Holland’s “Twisted Tales” series.

During McClowry’s “Rock the ’80s” show, which debuted in 2015 and included Cher among the artists she emulated, fans would ask her if she considered work as a Cher tribute artist. The singer-songwriter, unfamiliar with the concept, took a gradual path to developing a Cher-centric show.

The Chicago resident, after performing as Cher for a corporate client, sent her husband’s iPad-recorded video to the Legends in Concert live tribute-artist production. The company called her two hours later.

LIC took the entertainer to locations such as Canada, Australia and Las Vegas, Nevada, the latter where she had multi-month contracts in 2017 and 2022. One aspect of Cher, though, challenged McClowry.

“I thought I got her singing style down pretty well, her mannerisms, movements, but the speaking voice was the most challenging.”

During her first Vegas gig, McClowry intensely watched Cher interviews to learn her cadence. During her time with LIC, the performer “started to see how much interest there was in Cher. I wanted to delve deep into her story. She’s so fascinating; reinvention, hope, overcoming. Those things were exciting.”

McClowry, who saw Cher perform in Vegas, proceeded to create “The Beat Goes On.” The production, debuting with two shows in early 2020 before the start of the pandemic, kicked into gear in 2022.

“The show is so much improv,” said the singer, trained in comedy and improv. “As Cher started living inside of me, the actor, it was easier to have the bravery to speak as Cher.”

A meeting with the icon, thus far, has eluded McClowry. She has reached out to the singer, and, having played with Cher’s guitarist years prior, thought she would meet her when they played across the street from each other in New Jersey. Alas, a meeting did not materialize.

McClowry, who prides herself in staging a show where she looks and sounds like Cher, also created the show “A Very Cher-y Christmas” and would entertain recording Cher songs in her own voice.

As to whether the Cher persona rears its head when McClowry’s not performing, “my husband says that happens quite a bit. Weekly, he will even point it out, ‘There’s Cher.’ It’s when I’m asserting myself. She and I have similar humor, as well. That’s what he sees.”