Madonna Rocks

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Wow, was I blown away to see Madonna in her last performance at the Forum in Los Angeles last night. Thanks to my great friends Frank and Benny, I got to attend the show.

Madonna was absolutely incredible, as I surmise she always is. I'm sorry I haven't seen her in concert before, because her disciplined athleticism, her strength of personality, and her experienced eye for creating a spectacle are simply unrivaled in popular entertainment today.

Compared to role model Cher's casual, raunchy banter, Madonna disappointingly spoke very little to the audience between songs. And she ended the show abruptly with no encore. It was sadly jarring to have the spell broken so quickly and with no curtain call. At least some lucky fans in the $350 floor seats got to take home one of the hundreds of shiny gold balloons that fell from the rafters during the finale. Anyone remember the moon balloons from Bowie's Serious Moonlight show?

Unsurprisingly (to this Bowie nut), moments of The Confessions Tour show were highly influenced by David Bowie's performances in the 1970s and '80s, including the diva's reveal from within a glittering disco ball. Bowie had a similar appearance out of a mirrored hand opening up in his Diamond Dogs show of 1974. Madonna's team of aggressive, athletic dancers created mouth-dropping moments of shock and awe, much like Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider entourage did with their dramatic vignettes and dialog sequences, which Madonna has stretched in to full narratives. Don't get me started on Bowie's groundbreaking use of stage video in 1990's Sound + Vision, to which every subsequent pop show owes a debt!

Madonna's multiple video displays perfectly complemented the live action on the various stages, runways, and platforms stretched across the width of the arena. There was so much going on: cages, trap doors, strobe lights, roller skates...I can't spoil it too much, but there were so many astonishing images created during the performance that I can barely remember them all.

Madonna's physical prowess on stage never ceased to amaze. At times, I felt nervous about the physical risks she was taking with some of the choreography. She's going to break a hip someday, throwing herself across the floor like that! At age 47, she possesses an extraordinary muscular strength for so lithe a body, combined with a contortionist's flexibility. If there's a black belt in yoga, Madonna must be 8th degree!

Pardon all my gushing, but I'm someone who generally considered Madonna "my little sister's music." I am certainly nostalgic for some of Madonna's early hits, but I never took her very seriously as a musician, and never appreciated her often crass behavior. Her body is still in great shape, and her singing has matured, though she was plagued with the Forum's muddy arena sound.

I loved all the costumes and set changes, and the phenomenal dancing by some very talented and pretty young people. The guys doing flips on the monkey bars for "Jump", and the roller skating sequences both spring to mind. My favorite segment of the night was Madonna-as-leather-rock-goddess jamming on her black (Les Paul?) guitar for "I Love New York", one of the best and most rocking tracks off Miss M's current Confessions on a Dance Floor album. Madonna obviously relished the opportunity to rock out on stage and it was great fun to see her enjoying herself.

She played most of the songs off the new album, to which I am currently addicted. The quality of song writing is generally good, and the production kicks ass. The beat never stops and neither does the guilty fun. Folks, if you can afford a ticket to see this show, it's totally worth it. Madonna, I tip my hat to you.

The LA Times review describes the show much better than I can here.

P.S. Much has been said about Madonna's appearance on the cross. She stole that from our 1990 dinner theater production of Evita directed by David Armstrong.