http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1487434/05252004/madonna.jhtml

by Cory Moss

So how does Madonna reinvent herself on her Re-Invention Tour? it's nearly impossible to count the ways.
Actually, "re-inflame" might be the better word, as seemingly every second of her extravagant two-hour performance features something rousing, whether in the elaborate sets, the stunning choreography, the massive video screens or the music itself.

One minute she's provocatively vogueing with her male dancers while homoerotic images flash behind her, the next she's in fatigues, twirling a rifle to the sounds of explosions and helicopters. In the blink of an eye she goes from being strapped in an electric chair to pulling up her kilt to spell the word "FREEDOM" with glitter letters on her and her dancers" underpants.
"There's a lot of mixed messages," Madonna admitted Monday backstage at the sold-out Great Western Forum, where she launched the tour. "It would take me hours to explain them. Come back and see the show again.'

At 5 for a decent seat (plus to for parking, to for a T-shirt and to for a drink), that's a luxury few can afford, but There's certainly enough to the show that seeing it several times would make for different experiences. Like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with more sex.

Monday's show was divided into five segments, beginning with what resembled a Renaissance-era ball, until Madonna and her dancers walked on their hands and feet the arched-back way (ouch!) during a breakdown in the opening number, "Vogue." The band, tucked away in the back corners for most of the show, seamlessly transitioned from "Nobody Knows Me" to "Frozen" before a giant catwalk lowered from the ceiling and a circular section of the stage turned to reveal stacks of TVs.

Dancers dressed as soldiers, as well as nuns and other religious figures, joined Madge for a rendition of "American Life" made extra stark by images of war flashing on the various screens.
Livening up the mood, Madonna asked, "Come on, boys, do you believe in love?" as she launched into "Express Yourself." After donning a guitar for "Burning Up," she segued into an almost hard-rock version of "Material Girl.'

While Madonna exited for her third costume change, the stage turned again to reveal a circuslike atmosphere complete with a half-pipe and mohawked skateboarder. Various dancers, from a breakdancer to a tap dancer, strutted their stuff to the music of "Hollywood," setting the tone for lighthearted, showgirl-like performances of "Hanky Panky" and "Deeper and Deeper.'

With Madonna still in her sexy corset, the mood suddenly turned for "Die Another Day," which included imagery of an old man on his deathbed and ended with Madonna singing on an electric chair as it raised high above the stage.

"That's my favorite part," Madonna said later. "I like the idea of being restrained. I'm singing about all the things I could have had, but my ego got in the way and I destroyed all my happiness.'

Swings dropped from the ceiling and three acrobatic dancers got their slither on for the next transition, which found Madonna in a black Stella McCartney suit to sing "Nothing Fails" and a funked-up "don't Tell Me.'

"That was just a warm-up," she announced. "I don't want to see anyone sitting down the rest of the show. I'm giving my all and that's what I want back." With that, she launched into "Like a Prayer," accentuated by footage of a gospel choir. Images of Jesus and Mary faded away only to be replaced by impoverished kids. To accompany the heartbreaking photos, Madonna covered John Lennon's "Imagine." "I wanted to make a statement," Madonna said after the show. "I feel like that song is the ultimate peace song....And it was important to have the stuff going on behind me, the pictures, and really hit home that children are involved in all this chaos and destruction. I don't think people remember that all the time.'

As she sang the words "We can live as one," Madonna held up one finger and was lowered beneath the stage for her final costume change. A bagpipe player and a drumline, all decked out in kilts, took the stage playing a beat that morphed into "Into the Groove." As Missy Elliott (also in Scottish attire) appeared on the screens to rap her part of the remix, Madonna and her dancers used wooden posts to enhance their hopscotch-style routine.

After donning a "Kabbalahists Do It Better" T-shirt for "Papa don't Preach" (a play off the "Italians Do It Better" shirt she wore in the 1986 video), she slowed it down with "Crazy for You." "This is for all my fans who've stuck by me the last 20 years," she said.

The stage made one last turn, this time revealing lighted staircases surrounding a DJ, who mixed and scratched through "Music" while Madonna and her dancers transformed the arena into a steamy nightclub.

For the finale, the catwalk lowered again and Madonna danced to the front, singing "Holiday" as confetti exploded from all corners of the building, covering the enthusiastic audience.
Christina Aguilera, who had watched quietly from her seat most of the show, even cheered. And why not? All that excitement and she didn't even have to make out with Madonna.

by Edna Gundersen

Who's that girl?
Who else but Madonna, reinventing her past in a splashy and stylish retro-fitted show (* * * * stars out of four). She's dubbed it the Reinvention tour, an unnecessary reminder considering she has been reinventing herself since 1983. Two decades after threatening to rule the world, pop's unstoppable dominatrix stepped on stage Monday night at the Great Western Forum to flaunt her considerable powers in a lavish and strenuous spectacle of song and dance.
It's one of several tours this year by veteran acts, Prince and David Bowie among them, reassessing and reclaiming their hits.

The two-hour career overview arrives amid cynical buzz about ploys to shore up sagging album sales with a quick-buck oldies tour featuring a Kabbalah pulpit. Nonsense. Aside from Papa don't Preach, rendered as a saucy romp, and a gorgeous version of Like a Prayer, religious references scattered through the non-stop dance party are arty and mildly provocative. She briefly dons a "Kabbalists do it better" T-shirt and wears the mystic sect's Red String around her left wrist, but otherwise avoids sermonizing, except to wholeheartedly fulfill Kabbalah's mandate to promote a positive flow of energy.
"
I'm giving my all," she told the audience.

Now There's something you can believe in. The concert is a rigorous, fast-paced escapade with bold sets, brazen choreography and sexy but age-appropriate costumes, plus a bagpiper, a skateboarder, a fire handler and acrobats on swings.

It's cheeky and challenging theater, from the naughty Victorian caper of Vogue and the harrowing drama of Frozen to the breezy Express Yourself, rocking Burning Up and mock combat of American Life, played out on a suspended V-shaped catwalk. And that's only in the first of four elaborate acts. A carnival section boasts a waggish Hanky Panky from Dick Tracy and the lovely Lament from Evita.

Deeper and Deeper, the only track from Erotica, gets an upbeat treatment before the mood downshifts for Die Another Day, when Madonna is strapped into an electric chair that rises on a platform. (Contrary to rumor, the switch isn't thrown.)

An acoustic set follows, with heartfelt renditions of don't Tell Me, Like a Prayer and the show's two low points: a momentum-killing rap in Mother Father and a cover of John Lennon's Imagine, competent but pointless considering the countless gems that could have been culled from her own catalog (Live to Tell, Oh Father, This Used to Be My Playground, Take a Bow). The show wraps up with a kilt section that retools Into the Groove, Papa don't Preach, Crazy for You, Music and her time-honored finale, Holiday.

At 45, Madonna is in fine voice, especially on the vintage tunes, where her silky tone may come as a surprise to fans familiar with the early chirp. She dances energetically with grace and funk, plays guitar and, naturally, has the shape and muscle density of a Barbie doll. Madonna's mini-me's (listening, Britney? J-Lo?) have a long way to go before they match her in vocal prowess or multitasking abilities.

Most notably, Madonna seems to be having a jolly good time. Whereas her last outing had technical strengths but lacked warmth, Reinvention finds Madonna reinvested emotionally. The show doesn't have the degree of flesh, carnal content or shock value that past outings delivered, but this time Madonna is opting for more heart than cleavage and more personality than profanity. And she dances with the bagpiper. You won't get that at a Kabbalah class.

by Kelefa Sanneh

Madonna calls her new traveling show the Re-Invention World Tour, and, if anything, the name seems a bit too obvious. (You don't see John Kerry crisscrossing the country on a tour called Lots of Speeches.) For more than two decades she has stayed in the spotlight by shunning it every year or two, retreating to remake herself and then returning anew.

When you imagine Madonna, you don't see a single image but a time-lapse photograph, with one persona melting and warping into the next. it's an open-ended process, and when she's at her brilliant best, it's easy to believe that she could keep reinventing herself forever. But where do those old selves go? That's what Madonna tried to figure out at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif. on Monday night, when she played the first date of a tour that's scheduled to end in Lisbon in mid-September. (Her six-night stand at Madison Square Garden begins June 16.) This was a dense, dizzying, often incoherent, sometimes exhilarating night, starring a great performer who often found herself shadowboxing with her own past lives.

Madonna's last album, "American Life" (Warner Brothers/Maverick), wasn't a big success, so this is in some small sense a comeback tour. Her seemingly happy marriage to Guy Ritchie, her new career writing children's books, her diminishing interest in sexual provocation: all of this may make Madonna happy, but it doesn't keep her fans salivating. So her new tour is designed to remind them why they loved her in the first place.

The night began with an ominous recitation from the Book of Revelation, and then Madonna emerged in a sparkly bustier for "Vogue," a tribute to New York night life that now sounds more like the soundtrack to an instructional Pilates video. 'strike a pose," Madonna sang, and then she did, supporting herself on her forearms while her booted and stockinged feet kicked the sky.
Madonna's old infatuation with decadence has largely given way to an obsession with physical and mental health: her Web site, Madonna.com, reports that she requires "25 cases of kabbalah water provided backstage nightly," and she paid cheerful but earnest tribute to her new favorite spiritual beliefs throughout the show: near the end she sang "Papa don't Preach" while wearing a T-shirt that read "Kabbalists Do It Better.'

This meant that she had to find ways to reinterpret some of her older songs. Sometimes she did it gracefully, as when she sang a stripped-down "Like a Prayer" while Hebrew letters on the screen above her gave way to images of a black gospel chorus. And sometimes she did it clumsily: during "Material Girl" she made her famous (and complicated) declaration "Cause we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl" and couldn't resist adding, "But not really!'
Madonna's clashing identities collided brilliantly during the dazzling second act, a military dream sequence that evoked a world of panic and confusion. It started with "American Life," the electro-pop title track from the album, newly pumped up with a roaring guitar riff. She emerged in fatigues and a beret, backed by a troupe of dancers dressed as soldiers and religious figures, including a cardinal and a woman dressed in a spectacularly self-defeating garment best described as a micro-mini-burka.
By song's end the soldiers had stripped the faithful to their shorts and T-shirts, but the military drills continued, with Madonna acting the part of sergeant. There was a spine-tinglingly cynical version of "Express Yourself': as she sang, "What you need is a big, strong hand/To lift you to your higher ground," she raised a rifle above her head.

"Burning Up," a seemingly innocuous club classic from her first album, was even nastier. As Madonna, still wearing her fatigues, sang the refrain "I'm burning up, burning up for your love" static on the screens above was replaced by scrambled camcorder images. War and sex and videotape: it was impossible not to think of Abu Ghraib, though she never made the connection explicit. "Unlike the others I'd do anything/I'm not the same, I have no shame/I'm on fire," she sang, evoking a different sort of warfare.

There were times when Madonna seemed somehow oppressed by the weight of all her old selves, times when it seemed that she just wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over, as a straightforward singer-songwriter. This confessionalist urge marred the "American Life" album, and it marred the middle part of this concert too. There's something really depressing about watching Madonna present a video of children from around the world (it included a plug for Spirituality for Kids, a cabala-inspired organization) while singing John Lennon's "Imagine."
Ever since 9/11 "Imagine" has been everywhere, and it's probably time for singers to give that chestnut a break or at the very least to stop treating it as a high-minded protest song. When Madonna sang, "I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one," she sounded vaguely presumptuous. What does us mean, coming from someone like Madonna? Pop stars? Americans? Britons? Children's-book authors? And who exactly is you? In other words, Madonna is far too slippery and far too savvy for this sort of faux-na sentimentalism. That's precisely why people love her. Having created all those old selves, she Can't now disown them, she can only play with them.

And during the concert's exuberant final act, that's what she did. The stage was given over to a bagpiper and a drum corps, and Madonna and her dancers emerged in matching kilts, racing through a handful of old favorites: "Get Into the Groove," enhanced with video clips from Missy Elliott; a nostalgic singalong on "Crazy for You'; a galloping tribal remix of "Music." When it was all over a screen covered the stage, emblazoned with the words, "Reinvent Yourself' advice, perhaps, from one Madonna to another.

by BARRY WALTERS

Amid images of war and peace, pop star shows she can sing.

After twenty years in the limelight, Madonna is expected to cause controversy and reinvent herself for every new tour. So for the May 24th Los Angeles opening of her Re-Invention world trek, Madonna did the most unexpected thing she could: She came back as a great concert singer.

Even the most diehard Madonna fan will concede that her live performances have almost without exception been plagued by a multitude of missed notes, breathy passages, and, as of late, fake British accents. But while Mariah and Whitney have of been losing the acrobatic vocal dexterity and lung power on which their reputations rest, forty-five-year-old Madonna, whom few have ever taken seriously as a musician, has never sounded better than she did during the first of several gigs in her adopted West Coast home. Whether rocking out with classic black Les Paul in hand during a metallic rendition of her early club hit "Burning Up," or performing "Like a Prayer" behind a screen-projected gospel choir, Madonna belted, and did not once seemed strained. In the midst of a , million production festooned with a walkway that jutted out from the stage and over the audience, massive moving video screens, a dozen dancers, a bagpipe player, a stunt skateboarder and a whole lot of emotionally charged anti-war imagery, the focus was nevertheless on Madonna, and how she's matured into a truly great pop singer.

Opening with a yoga-trained twist on her famous Louis XIV-inspired MTV Video Music Awards rendition of "Vogue" and ending on a kilt-wearing finale of "Holiday" against a video backdrop of national flags that eventually morphed into one, the show was thematically simpler and more focused than her last several productions.

The barbarism of war and the necessity of love were at the heart of the entire show, and both played off each other, sometimes for ironic and decidedly uneasy effect. The original military-themed video footage of "American Life" that the singer withheld at the start of the Iraq war was finally unveiled, and then expanded upon during "Express Yourself," where Madonna sang her anthem of unbridled, intimate communication in front of dancers dressed as soldiers and goose-stepping with twirling rifles.

By contrast, Madonna closed an extended acoustic section of the show with a straightforward and thoroughly committed rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" as images of war and poverty-ravaged children eventually gave way to footage of a Muslim boy and his Israeli counterpart smiling as they walked with their arms wrapped around each other.

The heaviness of much of the imagery was balanced by Madonna's own presence, which seemed remarkably fun-loving and self-assured for the opening night of her most technically complex production. Only when she strapped on an acoustic or electric guitar during several songs and repeatedly glanced at her left hand to make sure it was playing the proper chords did she seem at all nervous. "How many people out there really think that I am the Material Girl?" she asked during a break in her most iconic early smash as she strummed with much deliberation.

For the last several songs, Madonna and her dancers donned black and white kilts, an apparent nod to husband Guy Ritchie's Scottish heritage, and black T-shirts that read "Kabbalists Do It Better," a cheeky reference to both her religious studies and the "Italians Do It Better" T-shirt she wore during her video for "Papa don't Preach," a song that was performed without the "near-naked pregnant women" described in pre-tour reports of the show. In a number dedicated for the "fans that've stood by me for the last twenty years," she sang her earliest hit ballad, "Crazy For You," earnestly and without contrivance.

Madonna's continued relevance was impressive, but it was even more striking that she's putting more love and genuine passion into her spectacle than ever.

Tue May 25, 5:47 AM ET
By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Madonna kicked off her worldwide "Re-Invention" tour on Monday with an extravagant and politically charged show that featured the diva singing in Army fatigues against a video backdrop of a war-torn nation.

Madonna opened the show wearing a jewel-encrusted corset but changed into combat gear when she sang "American Life" backed up by the sounds of dropping bombs.

On stage, dancers dressed like soldiers did push-ups and calisthenics as helicopters and infernos blazed on the video screens behind them.

The 45-year-old Material Girl did not disappoint her longtime fans, many of whom paid upward of 0 per ticket, by relying on many of her old hits like "Holiday" and "Vogue" punctuated by spectacular choreography.

"I knew there would be a lot of politics and religion tonight. it's kind of like she's grown up, but she's still hot," said Dee Dee Kennedy, 36, a saleswoman for Kettel One Vodka, who saw Madonna 20 years ago when she was a college student.

Kennedy, who paid about 0 for her seat, also bought tickets for another Los Angeles show as well as one in Las Vegas this weekend.

Skirting her trademark cone-bra bustiers, Madonna aimed to shock the crowd with video shots of nudity and apocalyptic imagery. In one number, male dancers pranced around in plaid skirts.

Spirituality and her passion for Kabbalah, an ancient practice of Jewish mysticism, also took center stage with untranslated Hebrew text often displayed in the background of her performances.

Another high point for many concertgoers was Madonna's rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine," which was accompanied by a video of sick and injured children from around the world.

An estimated 750,000 people are expected to see 39 shows scheduled for the U.S. and Canadian leg of her tour.

MADONNA FANS - If you haven't already heard, Madonna has added 2 New Dates!!!! September 8 Gelredome in Arnhem and September 12 Atlantico Pavillion in Lisbon. Keep checking Madonna.com to find out when tickets go on sale!!!!

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/liz.htm
May 25, 2004 --

"I'm GONNA avoid the cliche. . ."

So goes the lyric from Madonna's "Die Another Day," one of her more recent songs and one she performs in her "re-Invention" tour. This kicked off last night in Hollywood at the Forum. That sentiment is not only the hallmark of most of her career, but it is the vital component that lifts her current concert spectacle thrillingly above a mere "greatest hits" concert package.

The following is a report from my man on the scene, Denis Ferrara, a Madonna fan for several decades and astute critic observer who was in Los Angeles.

"Does she present those familiar tunes 'Vogue," 'Get Into the Groove," 'Crazy for You," 'Papa don't Preach." You bet, she even belts a song she once swore she hated and would never sing again 'Material Girl." But if you were expecting her to don a scarlet strapless gown and shimmy a la Marilyn, you don't know your Madonna.

"She has taken some of her vintage pop history and made it 'shiny and new . . . like a virgin." (Sorry, she doesn't re-invent that one this time.) The arrangements are forcefully driven or sensually slowed down who knew her 'Deeper and Deeper" dance hit had such erotic/romance resonance?

"Madonna presents herself as a vital, joyfully relevant and committed artist. She is giving her fans a taste of the past, washed with her refusal to compromise or to condescend. Or even to pretend for the sake of entertainment that she hasn't changed. She has changed. And she hopes you have too, or will. In other words, although there are no naked pregnant dancing girls or 'plenty of lesbian love," as has been erroneously reported, the envelope still gets pushed. Madonna and director Jamie King offer dazzling video images as Madonna performs beautiful, disturbing, over-the-top, political, mystical, mysterious, religious. During "Mother/Father" the Catholic images presented will wow even Mel Gibson unless he objects to the lack of violence. Kaballah, the spiritual philosophy that has so influenced Madonna, comes in for some recognition, but she does not belabor her beliefs. If controversy erupts, it will be because of how some of these images are interpreted, not because of anything Madonna says or does onstage.



"There's no crotch-grabbing, pointed bosoms or pointless profanity from the star. In powerful voice, with much improved guitar skills, her athletic dance style denying the years, she needs nothing up her sleeve. She is still an artist who wants to provoke, to spark an idea, to amuse and engage. She seems, however, to have put Shock for so long her random companion to bed. She never really needed him.

"Unlike 2001's 'Drowned World" tour, which was dark, often hostile, 're-Invention" returns Madonna to the light. She looks as if she is having a good time. 'Like a Prayer" is an invocation of divine inspiration, 'Papa don't Preach" is rendered as a joyous celebration of nature, with Madonna girlishly whirling in a long plaid kilt and a white wife-beater T, 'Hanky Panky" is simply giddy fun. Her cover of John Lennon's 'Imagine" backed with the show's most moving visuals is profound and resonant.

"Costuming is elegant and not fussy, except for a few leggy show-girly get-ups. And even Madonna wanted a few more sequins, but Cher's two-year farewell tour depleted the world supply. "Madonna performed for friends and family at Sunday's final rehearsal. There was some celeb glitz with the presence of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutchner. Lots of children, lots of Kaballah pals. After the show, she called one of her spiritual advisers up on stage to give his blessing. He offered a homey tribute to everybody's dedication, power and faith, promising that the best was yet to be. This was nice, but not enough for Madonna. 'Ooh, give us a blessing, please?" she asked winsomely. And so he did.

"Coming off after singing 22 songs live, and dancing like a mad thing, Madonna looked remarkably fresh, if damp from exertion. Her body is petite, toned, but not as muscular as it appears under the dramatic stage lighting. Complimented, she said, 'I hope you liked it. It came from the heart." And then she inquired, with a kind of childlike hopelessness, 'When it was over, did you feel uplifted?" assured, she shrugged delicately, beamed and said, 'OK then, I've done my job." "

And Denis, you did your job for all those Madonna fans out there!

Tonight's show at the LA Forum is postponed until tomorrow night. Madonna has the stomach flu and was ordered by her doctor to rest this evening. She will be back at 100% and Can't wait to entertain her fans!!!! If you have tickets for tonight's show, they will be honored tomorrow night.

MADONNA has embraced her back catalogue on her world tour, which opened in LOS ANGELES last night (May 24).

And the "re-Invention" tour also sees her continue to use controversial anti-war imagery.

The star was lambasted for dressing in military fatigues and using Iraq-sensitive imagery in the video and promotion for last year's "American Life" single and album.

However, undeterred, the politically-charged show sees Madonna wearing combat gear while singing "American Life" to the sound of dropping bombs while images of warfare rage on video screens, reports Reuters.

Elsewhere, a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" is backed with images of sick and injured children from around the world.

However, the show also sees Madonna return to "playing the hits" following the Drowned World tour, which almost entirely shunned her Eighties smashes in favour of post-'Bedtime Stories" material. The new show features hits such as "Like A Prayer', "Papa don't Preach', "Deeper and Deeper" and "Vogue".

The tour comes to the UK in August.

By Darryl Morden

Bottom line: With a greatest hits show, the pop icon is political and playful, while her once upfront challenges to sexuality stays in the background. (The Forum, Inglewood, Calif.Monday, May 24)

She calls it "Re-Invention," but it's just as much a rediscovery of Songs for herself and the fans, as Madonna opened her new world tour with a Show that was big on production but also had some heart.

Taking the stage after a quirky video remix of "The Beast Within," delivering quotes from the Bible targeting makers of violence and war, with images of Madonna in a white powdered wig and clothing circa 17th or 18th century, she surfaced for real from beneath the stage, joined by her dancers for her 1990s hit "Vogue," followed by the newer, rhythmic confessional "Nobody Knows Me."

These days, Madonna is more politically and spiritually provocative, rather than taking on sexual taboos -- though she managed that through her use of various video imagery. The title song from her current album "American Life" was a massive antiwar production piece, helicopters and firebombing on the giant screens behind her as she moved with her troupe, all clad in fatigues. The song is entrenched in a harrowing theme, but the staging was too Over the top. She found release in the sheer joy of the next number, "Express Yourself," which upped the energy level in the sold-out arena.

Perhaps knowing that, at 45, she Can't prance around girlie and teasing as she did two decades back, Madonna strapped on an electric guitar for a rocking version of "Burning Up," while in the sly "Material Girl," she added after one of the choruses, "I'm not, really." And There's no doubt she's a fascinating dichotomy: a wealthy estate landowner battling incursions back home in England, while also seeking new levels of spiritual enlightenment.

Madonna's well-publicized involvement in the Judaic mysticism of the Kabbalah appeared in the form of Hebrew letters and symbols several times on the screens. A semi-acoustic section of songs included a powerful "Like a Prayer," where the connection with the audience singing the chorus loudly made for a climactic moment. Traditional religion was rejected in "Mother Father," then came an earnest reading of "Imagine," drawing roars when John Lennon's picture appeared and the song ended with the image of two boys-- one Jewish, the other Arabic -- walking off in friendship and understanding.

She gave fans the perhaps expected array of costume changes and some lively choreography that shows the younger-generation pop darlings how it can really be done with some substance as well. But Madonna actually didn't dance that much herself, instead creating the illusion with skilled and well-placed moves here and there. Her best foils weren't her dancers but her two strong backing singers: longtime friend Donna De Lory and onetime Michael Jackson duet partner Siedah Garrett. Despite some big arrangements, the band was rarely heavy handed and often managed to keep even the dance music-based numbers from sounding mechanical.

A blare of bagpipes and a corps of martial drums gave way to the celebration of "Into the Groove," still one of her truest numbers. For "Papa don't Preach," she wore a black T-shirt that read "Kabbalists Do It Better" and later tossed it into reaching hands on the floor. She dedicated the ballad "Crazy for You" to everyone who'd stuck by her for more than 20 years,
Then closed in a party mode with the electronic herky-jerk of "Music" from a few years back melding into "Holiday," her top 40 breakthrough in 1983, taking everyone back to where it began.

Although the new show is entertaining and at times even engaging at deeper levels, one while wonders about a possible tour at some point with just Madonna, her band and singers, without the extreme production trappings and terpsichorean flock. She's certainly a skilled enough writer and performer that most of her songs can stand alone and shine without the
window-dressing theatrics, even if the fans do eat it up.