As Madonna was preparing to go onstage, I asked her how she would explain her many "phases". Very casually, she answered " We're all here to celebrate, right? Celebration can take many different forms."
I was left to ponder that as she got up and moved to her mirrors for the final costume adjustments.
A stern, dramatic opening began her almost 2 hour show supporting her latest dance disc, MDNA, as dancers dressed in burgundy monk outfits rang bells and marched across a church-like setting, complete with stained-glass windows, while a giant incense holder swung over the heads of a couple hundred audience members lucky enough to be squeezed near the front of the stage inside a point-shaped catwalk.
Madonna kicked the night off with Girl Gone Wild, dressed in a form-fitting black shirt and pants, but it wasn’t really until the next song, Revolver, that she really got our attention as she and her dancers wielded guns, which Madge herself would put to repeated use during the next number, Gang Bang, set in a cheap hotel room bearing a giant cross on the wall.
Making up for those mis-steps were a short version of her classic Papa Don’t Preach, her later hit Hung Up — with her dancers in camouflage and balaclavas and performing on slackropes (as opposed to tightropes), and Madonna even strapped on a guitar on the new song I Don’t Give A, as the front of her catwalk was elevated.
But it was the first burst of colour with The Material Girl and her female dancers dressed up as drum majorettes in white and red uniforms complete with twirling batons for Express Yourself and Give Me All Your Lovin’ where the concert really came alive a good half-hour into the proceedings.
And while it took a while to get used to a drastically reworked Open Your Heart, featuring the Basque trio Kalakan, when the song took off, it really took off, due in no small part to the presence of her young son Rocco who bust a few dance moves and came back to the stage repeatedly as the show progressed.
Madonna’s daughter Lola Leon was also a performer in her program.
She also didn’t hesitate to promote her critically panned film W.E., which showed at TIFF last year, showing clips from it while she sang the movie’s Golden Globe-winning song Masterpiece.
But possibly the biggest crowd pleaser was Vogue, which saw her and her dancers dressed in different black and white ensembles.
She even chugged back a martini before taking on Candy Shop/Erotica and the most provocative song of the night, Human Nature, which saw her strip down to her bra, with the words “Free Pussy” stencilled on her back, and lower her pants entirely to reveal a thong and fishnet stockings from the back.
That was followed by a slow, solo piano version of Like A Virgin that saw Madonna climb up on the piano.
As the concert neared its end, Madonna was dressed Joan of Arc-like in a Medieval warrior outfit of a shiny silver split gown and pants as the theme of church reared its head again while she sang I’m A Sinner with the help of Kalakan, and Like A Prayer with her dancers and Rocco dressed like a church choir in black and white.
Whew!! I'm exhausted.
Thanks for taking care of us, Rufus27.
Our members get backstage to many of the year's top shows. Want some? Join us today!
