MUSIC
Lady Gaga ★★★★★
The Mayhem Ball
Marvel Stadium, December 5
A 19th-century manor constructed on stage hosts Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball, a gothic party filled with curious creatures — untamed, unleashed and allowed to be their ghoulish selves. Organ music plays, leaning into the melodrama of an opera, as the pop star emerges atop a giant birdcage covered in a blood-red curtain, which, when pulled back, reveals a crew of possessed dancers.
Lady Gaga performs on stage at The O2 Arena on September 29, 2025 in London, England.Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
Opening aptly with Bloody Mary and Abracadabra, the scene is set for a dark evening of devilish delights.
The 14-time Grammy Award-winner last toured Australia in 2014 for her ArtRave: The ARTPOP Ball tour. It’s poetic that Gaga’s current tour promotes her latest album Mayhem, which sees her return to her pop glory, but with a darker twist.
She was accepted into The Juilliard School at a young age, but her parents instead enrolled her in a private Catholic school. Her classical training as a pianist and religious education permeate the sound and themes in her music.
Gaga’s strengths lie in turning macabre metaphors into theatre, delivering a visual feast of a production alongside a passionate live vocal performance. The dichotomies of good and evil, and life and death, underpin the show, as she writhes in a sandpit filled with skeletons, is brought back to life by demonic nurses and plunges the stage into smoke and emerald green for her performance of Garden of Eden. The choreography from the ensemble of dancers mimics zombies and critters. “I can’t hide who I am, can you?” she asks the crowd.
Lady Gaga performs on stage at The O2 Arena on September 29, 2025 in London, England.Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
From ruffled gowns and robot-like armour to elaborate feathered fedoras and floral crowns, the detail and consideration in the costuming is impeccable. Gaga plays into the idea of alter egos — reminiscent of Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery — often facing off with a masked dancer in a white crown or red-lace ensemble. Fans match this sartorial elevation, paying homage to her many eras by adorning themselves in blonde wigs, red-lace bodysuits, black-feathered collars and bejewelled black bras.
Along with new material, she performs all her greatest club hits, including Just Dance, Applause, Paparazzi and Alejandro. Her reimagination of Shallow – sitting in a boat rowing down the runway – is inspired, and performing Edge of Glory as a piano ballad was transcendent.
