Lady Gaga
★★★★
Accor Stadium, December 12
Lady Gaga in the London leg of the tour. Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
“Welcome to our Opera House, Sydney!” With those words, Lady Gaga announced her triumphant return to the Harbour City after more than a decade away.
It helped that we were 14 kilometres west in Olympic Park, as Gaga’s sense of the theatrical needs space. She was by turns bold, brilliant and bat shit in a maximalist 2½-hour, five-act spectacular charting 20 years of pop excess and Tim Burtonesque burlesque.
Kicking off with an almost-restrained version of Bloody Mary (while sitting on top of a two-storey domed curtain, mind you), the mayhem started in earnest with Abracadabra and its command to dance or die.
The early leg of electro-pop was a triumph of crowd-pleasing staging and choreography over songwriting. New track Garden of Eden and the now-classic Poker Face stand out from the early pack as top-notch pop tunes.
There is a lot that can be said about the staging and sets. Giant skulls for Killah; a Phantom of the Opera-inspired boat ride and mask for the ballad Shallow; a grave that resembled kitty litter for the post-apocalyptic zombie rave of Disease.
Gaga’s rainbow cape envelops the entire stage.Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
At times, the show overwhelmed the songs, but they were mostly a terrific match. Papparazzi, a chance to let Gaga’s voice shine on one of her best songs, was also the showcase of a giant costume spanning the whole stage that resembled a rainbow train on a wedding dress.
There was a lot to take in, but it would be churlish to say it was too much. Zombieboy is no Thriller, and Dead Dance is one for the Wednesday fans, but Gaga is at her best singing a hedonistic tune and few others can belt out three in a row that are as infectious as LoveDrug, Applause and Just Dance.
