Posted on 05/22/2006 6:13:07 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
LOS ANGELES - Madonna launched her first world tour in two years on Sunday, delighting an enthusiastic Los Angeles crowd by hanging herself from a cross, insulting President George W. Bush, and dusting off some of the sexy moves that have sustained her career for more than 20 years.
The "Confessions" tour will keep her on the road for two months in North America, and then resume on July 30 in Wales for a five-week stadium swing through eight European cities. Shows in Japan are also on tap for mid-September.
The 47-year-old dance diva spent two hours churning out most of the tunes from her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor," as well as a few old hits such as "Like a Virgin," "Ray of Light" and "Lucky Star."
The audience at the Los Angeles Forum included Madonna's Kabbalah guru Rabbi Yehuda Berg, socialite Nicole Richie, and gay icon Rosie O'Donnell, who upgraded herself to a premium seat on the floor and left her spouse alone in the stands.
The meticulously choreographed Vegas-style routine began 50 minutes late when a giant mirror ball was lowered from the ceiling to the end of a catwalk stretching deep into the floor. Out popped Madonna, in S&M-styled riding gear and whip, singing the new tune "Future Lovers" as four bare-breasted male dancers writhed around with ball gags in their mouths.
MADONNA, HITLER & BUSH
Later on, she donned a crown of thorns and suspended herself from a giant mirrored cross to deliver the ballad "Live to Tell." Video screens showed images of third-world poverty and reeled off grim statistics.
During one of her half-dozen costume changes, another video montage juxtaposed images of Bush, members of his administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair with footage of Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Midway through the new song "I Love New York," she deviated from the script and made a crude reference to Bush and oral sex.
Beyond that, she barely spoke to the audience, largely focusing on keeping control of a busy nightclub-style stage that boasted 15 dancers, four musicians and three backing vocalists. For the most part, she joined in the tricky choreography, her voice evidently not affected by the aerobic workout. She did pause for a few songs during which she appeared to play a shiny Gibson Les Paul guitar.
A disco segment near the end, where she dressed in a "Saturday Night Fever"-style white suit to perform "Music" thrilled the crowd, as did the "Like a Virgin" routine, when she climbed aboard a carousel-style black leather saddle.
There was no encore, and the lights came up as soon as she had completed a medley of "Lucky Star" and latest hit single "Hung Up" while sporting an illuminated white cape with "Dancing Queen" embroidered on the back.
Billboard magazine has forecast ticket sales could reach the $200 million range, making it the most successful tour by a female artist. Cher holds the record with $192.5 million from 273 shows on a "farewell" world tour that began in June 2002 and lasted almost three years, according to Billboard.
Madonna, on the other hand, is scheduled to play fewer than 60 dates on this tour. Similarly, her $125 million-grossing Re-Invention tour in 2004 and the $75 million Drowned trek in 2001 were also relatively brief.
What catapults her to the top of the leagues is her ticket price, topping out at $380 (including Ticketmaster fees) in most U.S. venues. However, it did not stop her from adding dates to accommodate demand.
And don't forget Warren Beatty -- not that he had much of a career, but Dick Tracy? Uh, I mean, what the...
If I had $5,000 to blow, I'd by me a used bass boat and a pop up camper.
Guess everybody's priorities are different.
You can't lose what you've never had...
Who would be stupid enough to pay $5000 to see Madonna?
And a "Hollywood" cross at that! What a bore and a phony. I pity the suckers in the audience who buy into this. Sickening.
Point well taken.
You mentioned her real name! Now she knows you know it. Watch your back! ;)
Sorry about that Lil J - it's rather disgusting, I agree.
When that issue arrived, my husband had to hide it, 'cause he knew the nicest thing I'd do would be to line the catbox with it.
Love your tagline, btw . . . short and to the point!
Did you catch the lip-synching references in the article? That, plus the air-guitar one, made me think the reviewer might not be a Madonna fan.
Can you say "lipsync?" I would love to see her hung out to dry when her lipsync track failed. She could dance a little jig and run off stage.
"Pay attention to MEEEEEEE!"
She can't have the Da Vinci Code getting all the attention now, can she?
That reviewer and I have at least one thing in common.
She's done so much 'work' over the last 2 decades to 'normalize' and mainstream this kind of thing, and desensitize her 'adoring' public, that this is hardly shocking for her. If she had wanted to really shock us, she could have gone all conservative, the men wearing nice suits, with a happy song and an uplifting message. Now THAT would be shocking.
She's slightly more talented than Paris Hilton, and equally skilled at being famous for being famous.
Raquel Welch did this some 40 years ago. I don't have the photo but it's out there somewhere.
well, I disagree. I actually own the Soundtrack from Dick Tracy which is fabulous, IMO.
She sang beautifully in 'Evita.' I read somewhere that she had taken voice lessons for that role. That movie's the only "Madonna" work that's ever entered our home.
Gaining speed on the down side of the arc. Old, ugly and perverted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.