The Material Girl straps up a knee for start of 50-date tour
By Rick Fulton
BRITNEY, Christina Aguilera and Kylie have all tried to emulate her but there's only one Madonna.
On the first night of her Reinvention tour, the Material Girl belied her45years to look more like the original Eighties pop star except for the support bandages.
Costume changes such as a soldier's uniform, kilt and Kabbalists Do It Better T-shirt, mimicking her Italians Do It Better T-shirt from the Papa Don't Preach video, have all been seen before.
The tour kicked off on Monday in Los Angeles and sizzling sex was absent despite her PR's claim that the concerts were 'going to cause a stir on the same level as her Sex Book and the Erotic album'.
Her anti-war protest and images of starving children were left to giant screens as humour dominated. In one song, her backing dancers pulled up their kilts to reveal the word 'freedom' on their bottoms.
Madonna didn't leave the amazing acrobatics to her dancers in the LA Forum arena. She may have had a bandage on her right arm and a knee support, but her dedication to yoga meant she could literally bend over backwards for her audience.
'The show will make people's hair stand on end,' said one report.
'Madonna has pulled out all the stops to make this her most controversial yet.'
An hour into the show, she did the much-hyped electric chair scene. But she was lamely strapped to a wooden electric chair and, instead of sparks, she simply disappeared below stage.
Movie director husband Guy Ritchie could not keep his eyes off his wife as he laughed and danced throughout the show.
Celebrity fans at the £1million show included Tom Cruise and Christina Aguilera, although the arena wasn't full.
Madonna spent three nights performing in LA before moving on to Las Vegas.
The 50-date tour is also set to visit Canada, UK and Paris.
MOVE over BRITNEY and BEYONCE – there’s only one Queen of Pop and she’s back to reclaim her crown.
MADONNA defied her critics to prove she’s still No1 when she kicked off her Re-Invention Tour in LA.
She may be 45 but she’s sassier, sexier and more supple than the current crop of young pretenders — as my pictures prove.
Madonna gave the fans exactly what they wanted — her biggest hits reworked with a modern twist.
The show opened with Vogue — and the track sounded as fresh now as it did all those years ago.
Dressed in a diamond-studded silver bodice, black hotpants and knee-high boots, Madonna looked 20 years younger than the woman we’ve seen in recent months — and devastatingly sexy.
The theme was boudoir chic and she proved that all those yoga classes were worthwhile.
She put SPORTY SPICE to shame with her back flips and flawless dance performance.
Anyone who thought she was past it was proved wrong on Monday night — and I’m one of them.
After her disappointing American Life album I doubted whether Madonna still had the X-factor that made her the leading star of her generation.
But I was forced to eat humble pie as she raged through a series of hits that mesmerised the audience
Madge was accompanied by a stunning video display.
She was shown on video screens dressed in the regalia of Kaballah — she’s a leading follower of the Jewish faith.
An anti-war section of the show kicked off with American Life.
Wearing combat gear and a black beret, she strutted her stuff on the dance floor and showed a video of child war victims.
And during her performance of Frozen she showed she still has the power to shock and be controversial with a homo-erotic video backdrop of naked men seemingly having sex.
One of the highlights of the show for me was a reworked version of Material Girl during which Madge asked the crowd: “How many people really think that I’m a Material Girl?”
Madonna’s hubby GUY RITCHIE watched in awe from the VIP seats, surrounded by Kaballah devotees.
As she went past him on a bridge, he blew her a kiss and whistled.
Madonna was determined to lay to rest a ghost which has haunted her for years — after she was turned down for a part in hit movie Chicago.
She devoted a section of the show to a Chicago/Cabaret theme and proved she could have put Oscar-winner CATHERINE ZETA JONES to shame with an all-singing, all-dancing performance of hits such as Hollywood, Hanky Panky and Deeper And Deeper.
No Madonna show would be complete without controversy.
During her performance of Bond theme Die Another Day, she was strapped and chained to an electric chair.
She later dressed in a pinstripe suit and top hat and sat down with a guitar to perform an emotional version of Nothing Fails and Don’t Tell Me.
Other highlights were Like A Prayer, Into The Groove and Papa Don’t Preach.
She covered JOHN LENNON’s Imagine, accompanied by footage of war victims, and drew a huge cheer when an image of the late Beatle flashed on to the screens.
The show closed with a medley of some of her biggest hits — Crazy For You, Music and Holiday.
Into The Groove featured an appearance by rapper MISSY ELLIOTT and kilt-clad bagpipers, with Madge leaping on stage in her own kilt and tartan knickers.
I’ve seen three previous Madonna world tours and I’ve always been impressed with her ability to surprise and amaze.
But she has saved the best for her Re-Invention tour. And I don’t use those words lightly.
It was the best pop show I have ever seen — and I’ve seen many over the years.
What Madonna seemed determined to prove was that she is still at the top of her game — the likes of KYLIE, Britney and Beyonce don’t even come close.
Every dance move, every note and every image was timed and executed to perfection — as only Madonna can do.
Today’s generation of Pop Idol wannabes should listen, learn and take note from a woman who has no intention of handing over her crown for a good few years yet.
Queen of pop Madonna kicked off her Re-Invention world tour to a rapturous reception in California Monday night -- and husband Guy Ritchie outed himself as her biggest fan.
The singer, 45, impressed the glitzy crowd at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles -- including fans Tom Cruise and Christina Aguilera -- by demonstrating her incredible flexibility with some bendy yoga moves, before shocking them with an electric chair sequence.
Madonna also continued her fierce anti-war stance as she performed "American Life" in combat gear.
The pop superstar thrilled fans when she opened the show wearing a jewel-encrusted corset, but quickly changed into fatigues for the controversial song, during which she sang against a video backdrop of a war-torn nation, and to the sound of dropping bombs.
The singer also performed past hits like "Holiday" and "Vogue" to thrill fans, who had paid as much as $200 to see her perform live.
Madonna's Kabbalah faith also played a major part in the show -- Hebrew text appeared on a giant screen throughout her performance.
The highlight of the show was an emotional rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine," accompanied by a video of sick children from around the world.
But it was the antics of Madonna's British spouse Ritchie that really got the crowd talking. The filmmaker, 35, jumped up and down during the gig and screamed enthusiastically throughout.
Madonna tour struggles to get into the groove www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-27 13:28:41
BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Madonna's return to the concert stage received mixed reviews, with some suggesting the 45-year-old mother of two had erred by swapping her trademark sexuality for a new found spirituality.
"Message to Madonna: Bring back the sex. Or at least something with flesh and blood, please," said the Los Angeles Times in a particularly scathing notice on Monday's launch of the Material Girl's first major tour in three years.
"This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge," the newspaper said.
Fans paid 200 dollars a piece for Monday's show which kicked off Madonna's "Re-Invention" world tour. Illness force her to call off the second concert Tuesday and she has also pulled out of dates in Israel because of security fears.
Under the shadow of Middle East violence and the war in Iraq, the concert had a distinctly political element.
A video backdrop showing tough images of US soldiers at war and injured children popped up during her camouflage-clad rendition of "American Life," drawing ire from some members of the audience.
Images of a Palestinian boy walking arm in arm with an Israeli were shown, along with pictures of ill or injured children as Madonna sang John Lennon's "Imagine."
"Madonna traded most of the old sexual teasing for social commentary, and she's no John Lennon, friends," the Times commented.
The New York Times was slightly more forgiving, but argued that the "re-invention" tag had proved over-ambitious as Madonna appeared to be stuck "shadowboxing" with her past.
"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," the newspaper said.
The Times also echoed the criticism of the "Imagine" offering, saying Madonna was "far too slippery -- and far too savvy -- for this sort of faux-naive sentimentalism."
More upbeat was USA Today which hailed an evening of "cheeky and challenging theater" complete with "sexy but age appropriate" costumes.
"This 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," it said.
The tabloid New York Post, meanwhile, pretty much ignored the music altogether and offered instead a withering critique of Madonna's stage outfits in an article titled "Material Hurl."
"Madonna's blond ambition is fading to bland," said the Post, which reserved special sartorial outrage for the "frumpy, midi Scottish inspired kilt and wife-beater shirt" outfit Madonna wore for the show's finale.
"We just want her to bring back the cone bra," the newspaper said.
Pop superstar Madonna's Re-Invention tour has been slammed by American critics -- for overloading the show with "naive" political statements.
The singer, 45, kicked off the U.S. leg of her tour in California on Monday but failed to impress critics with her attempts to "wipe the slate clean" by ditching her trademark raunchy routines.
The Los Angeles Times sniped, "This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge."
Many critics were unimpressed by the images of the Iraq war, injured civilian children and U.S. soldiers, saying Madonna should look back to her past concert tours for inspiration.
Others suggested her cover of John Lennon classic "Imagine," throughout which a hard-hitting video featuring Israeli and Palestinian children walking hand in hand was played, was ill-conceived.
The Californian newspaper added, "Madonna traded most of the old sexual teasing for social commentary, and she's no John Lennon, friends."
The New York Times concurred, "Madonna is far too slippery -- and far too savvy -- for this sort of faux-naive sentimentalism."
Tabloid the New York Post added, "Madonna's blonde ambition is fading to bland."
I think pop stars should stick to what they do. Politics and music just don't go together. I am not saying they can't have opinions, but seriously, who cares what Madonna or Britney think of the war on Iraq? Not me!
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Billboard) -- It takes a lot to shock a Madonna fan.
Apparently, they have not been shocked by ticket prices that climb above $300 for the artist's new Re-Invention tour. Nor has the show itself proved as shocking as early reports portrayed.
So, it should come as no surprise that the Re-Invention tour is an unqualified blockbuster, even if the second show was scrapped because of the star's stomach flu, and tentative dates in Israel have been dropped.
Despite the early snafus, the tour, which began May 24 at the Forum in Los Angeles, is destined to be the top-grossing tour of 2004, with a gross in the $120 million range and attendance of about 920,000.
Almost every show put on sale sold out quickly, and numerous dates were added to the route.
The tour, which is promoted worldwide by Clear Channel Entertainment under the direction of CCE touring president Arthur Fogel, seems to have benefitted from Madonna's assertion that the set list would be a career retrospective rather than focus on newer material, a promise on which she delivers.
Veteran tour production pro Chris Lamb (Eagles, Paul McCartney) is production manager for the Re-Invention tour. He says opening night was the culmination of six months of preparation and came off perfectly.
"That's Madonna -- she's a perfectionist," Lamb says. "This is a show, not a concert. This is more theater than rock 'n' roll."
Unique production elements include a center-stage turntable 42 feet in diameter that rises to 10 feet in height and can spin up to 15 miles per hour, as well as a series of conveyor belts at the front of the stage.
"This is an amazing show technically, very precise," Lamb tells Billboard. "The movement of the show is very unique; it goes back and forth in the front and rotates on the stage. Nobody has seen anything like this."
Opening night was well received critically. USA Today entertainment writer Edna Gundersen proclaimed the concert "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."
The show is configured at 270 degrees, with no seats sold behind the stage. All seats are reserved, but two pits inside the stage area accommodate about 50 contest winners in each market.
Lighting director Ray Bennett oversees moving lights and three moving LED video screens. There are four major set changes, swapped out through the turntable. There is no encore.
"The entire set design starts with Madonna," Lamb says. "She says, 'This is what I'm thinking. Tell me what you can do.' "
Fogel and his team learned the afternoon of May 25 that the night's performance would be postponed. "We got the word out pretty well, because only a few people showed up at the venue," he says. The makeup concert took place May 26.
Though a trio of shows in Israel for late September was once considered, they will not be booked because of security concerns.
The tour comprises 55 shows in 19 markets -- 39 concerts in North America and 16 in Europe.
The trek boasts some impressive multiples in major markets, including five shows in L.A., four in Boston, four in Chicago, three in Toronto and eight in the New York/New Jersey region, including six at Madison Square Garden.
Madonna's 2001 tour, also produced by CCE, grossed $75 million from 47 sellouts, according to Billboard Boxscore.
