In Newest Spectacle, Madonna Morphs but Refuses to Give In
Chad Batka for The New York Times
PHILADELPHIA A ritual, a blood bath, slacklining, a partial striptease, drummers in midair, traditional Basque harmonies, a psychedelic train ride theyre all part of Madonnas MDNA tour, which started its North American itinerary with an arena concert here at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night. It comes to Yankee Stadium next Thursday and Sept. 8.
Madonna has described the show in a statement as the journey of a soul from darkness to light, and perhaps it is. Near the beginning, after tolling church bells and chanting, a gun-toting Madonna is besieged by assailants from all directions and dispatches them in self-defense as giant spatters of blood fill the video screen. In that opening segment she sings about jealousy, divorce and, in Revolver with images of guns and ammunition about sex as a weapon.
Yet the bad-gal nastiness soon gives way to more generous impulses, trading violent shock value for flamboyant showmanship. By the end shes sharing a big dance party. And the concert is less a story than an excellent excuse for extravagant, perpetually surprising production numbers involving more than three dozen performers, while it turns some of Madonnas past hits inside out.
Madonna, at 54, isnt giving in to pop obsolescence. The concert is a dis! play of energy and nutty inventiveness, with Madonna costumed as everything from baton twirler to folk dancer. Featured among the musicians is Kalakan, a trio of Basque singers and drummers who bring medieval and folky elements to various songs, including a version of Open Your Heart that arrived as a kind of Basque jig, with Madonna dancing and singing alongside her son Rocco.
MDNA, the album that supplies nearly half of the shows songs, strove to connect Madonna with the latest highly commercial wave of electronic dance music. (The disc jockey and producer Laidback Luke opened the show with a set that remixed Madonna tunes alongside current dance floor staples.) But Madonnas spectacle doesnt confine itself to club land; its aspirations go further.
On this tour Madonnas usual steely determination shares the stage with a new warmth and acceptance. One song has Nicki Minaj, on video, declaring, Theres only one queen, and thats Madonna, and theres also some sly professional rivalry. Performing Express Yourself Madonna slips in an excerpt from Lady Gagas Born This Way, pointing up its very similar melody and cadence. But the show soon veers away from self-promotion. In a midconcert interlude Madonna spoke about returning to America after touring Europe, going on to reaffirm the importance of freedom of speech; she cited the jailed Russian punk group Pussy Riot.
While Madonna flaunted her toned physique in Human Nature she stripped down to lingerie, with No Fear written on her back she didnt hide her maturity. Gunplay aside, the concerts most startling moment was its new take on Like a Virgin, a hit from 1984. Backed by a piano player wearing a top hat, it became a waltz in a minor key, with Madonna singing in an uncharacte! ristical ly low, slightly scratchy register her Lotte Lenya voice, unassisted.
A song that had been a chirpy claim to easy renewal became, instead, a memory of distant innocence. Hung Up, a more recent song that was originally catchy enough for a phone commercial, was reworked as something ominous and obsessive.
Madonna may never have an impressive voice, only an adequate and tenacious one. Perhaps its limitations help her write melodies that are easier for the vast pop audience to sing. Backing vocals and electronic effects often help her along onstage, though she does dare to expose her voice for part of the show. And Madonna still looks silly when, as she did in I Dont Give A, she slings an electric guitar and makes rocker-chick faces; its odd that someone so physically disciplined cant fake better guitar moves.
But Madonna and her team do know how to dazzle. Her male dancers bounced on web tightropes in slacklining routines, twisted themselves in scary contortions and even wore some high heels. Vogue placed Madonna at a decadent party with a chandelier overhead, surrounded by dancers in angular black-and-white costumes, while she struck her own poses in a latter-day remake of her old conical bra, now a black-ribbed exoskeleton.
As Madonna sang Give Me All Your Luvin, a large drum corps in band uniforms pattered away, suspended in midair. Its hard to guess what Im a Sinner has to do with a video train ride zooming through India, or how Im Addicted connects to a group martial-arts ceremony, but both productions easily transcended the clichs in the lyrics.
Madonnas set started nearly an hour later than planned, the result of last-minute adjustments for its American premiere. After apologizing, she said, I wanted the show to be perfect for you, because my fans deserve it, and quite frankly I deserve it. The details have always mattered to Madonna, and in this new extrav! aganza t hey add up. The effort is visible, but so is the delirious impulse behind it.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 29, 2012
An earlier version of this review misspelled the given name of Lotte Lenya as Lotta and misstated part of the song title Open Your Heart as Open My Heart.