December 19, 2023
Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
Week: 370
This week’s thing: Madonna is (or was until now!) a bucket list show for me. Obviously I’m too young and spritely to know fully about the impact she had on music and pop culture in the 1980s and much of the ‘90s, but I like her music a lot and am fully on board with how much she seems to not only not give a fuck about pissing people off but actually relish doing it. It seemed when Madonna came down with a life-threatening bacterial infection that I might never get my chance, and I definitely thought that when the US leg was postponed to after her European tour leg that she would cancel the shows anyway when push came to shove. But thankfully I was wrong and last night, only two hours after the show’s official start time, Madonna took the stage.
Music: 3/5: This show was billed as a hits tour – a big reason I wanted to go to see it and also a big reason why I sat out Madonna’s last tour pre-COVID where she was doing theater shows and apparently playing almost none of them. And we got hits, for sure. But we also didn’t get a lot of the really big ones. And it felt like the mega-hits we did get were snippets, spliced in some cases with recent songs from Sam Smith and Beyoncé or played but not performed during costume and stage changes. Among the songs we didn’t hear: “Borderline,” “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” “True Blue,” “Express Yourself,” “Beautiful Stranger,” “Music,” “4 Minutes” – I mean, that’s basically a whole concert setlist in and of itself.
Lighting/backdrop/visuals: 4/5: My expectations were sky-high for the production of this show, and were mostly met. We got great light shows with moving rigs. We got lasers. We got Madonna floating and flying around Capital One Arena, dancing in a little box. We got dozens of costumes for her and also for her big dance troupe, including a really fun closing song with dancers dressed as different versions from the Madonna multiverse. Taking off one point for some interludes that didn’t really work – early on, Madonna shared that the night would tell the story of her life and that’s what some of the interludes were attempting to do. But they were hard to hear and follow and the show would have worked just fine without them. Maybe could have even squeezed in another song or two… I mean, come on, how are you not gonna play “Like a Virgin”??
Overall vibe: 3/5: I don’t know what to attribute it to… maybe that the show started at 10:30, two full hours after the time on the ticket. But it just felt like a bit of a sleepy show, on the audience’s part and also a little bit on Madonna’s.
Bonus points:
Stage banter: +1, I just find Madonna to be very naturally funny and appreciated how many times she said “fuck you” to us
Fashion: +2, insane wardrobe from throughout Madonna’s 40 years as a performer
Disco ball use: +1, for a giant disco ball that really was essential
Home early: -1, did I mention it started two hours late??
Final: 13/15