BOSTON — Lady Gaga kicked off Holy Week in Boston with one hell of a show.
The self-anointed “Mother Monster” brought her latest touring musical extravaganza, “The Mayhem Ball,” to the TD Garden on Sunday, March 29.
Her all-out spectacle had to be seen and heard to be believed and to be fully appreciated.
It might only be March, but it’s quite possible that Lady Gaga delivered what was arguably the concert of the year in these parts. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine her playing another show where she exhibited such emotion. The Boston show was that powerful.
Broken into four musical acts, “The Mayhem Ball” was a two-hour-and-35-minute, 30-song tour de force, in which Gaga never gave the sold-out audience a chance to catch its collective breath.
She also has a second show slated for March 30, which should also be a sell out by opening curtain.
Transforming the celebrated sports arena into a combination gothic opera house/portal to hell, Gaga opened with an eye-popping “Bloody Mary,” with the music and stage action segueing smoothly with the showstopping “Abracadabra,” followed by “Judas” (whose name I heard dropped twice Sunday, first at Palm Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Loreto Church in Worcester and, later, at the TD Garden), “Aura” and “ScheiBe.”
‘Can’t read my poker face’
Gaga came out wearing a three-story Tudor-era hoop skirt that doubled as a hoosegow. When she revealed where her knickers should be, a combination steel cage/chastity belt with some of her withering dancers as inmates popped up instead.
You got to say one thing about Lady Gaga, she knows how to make a memorable entrance.
Gaga went all goth as she crawled on the fog-drenched stage looking for some forbidden fruit to nibble on during “Garden of Eden,” and she did the hokey-pokey with her doppelganger dressed all in white from her “Poker Face” video.
While some divas have skeletons in their closet, Lady Gaga proved that she has skeletons as her unwilling duet and dancing partners. During “Perfect Celebrity” which opened Act II, Gaga was rolling around in a sandbox doubling as a shallow grave with a full-length human skeleton while several skulls watched on. The skulls revealed themselves to be dancers wearing death masks and Greek togas buried up to their necks during the aptly titled “Disease.” Before she was done with the litter box portion of the evening, Gaga tussled with a red demon who looked like a mascot for Underwood Deviled Ham.
Looking like an extra in David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” Gaga came crawling out of the human wreckage with steel crutches, body armor and a metallic skull cap for “Paparazzi.” Gloriously grotesque and deliciously decadent, Gaga wore an exquisite, eye-catching white lace get-up with a flowing train attached to it that reached from the back of the stage to the beginning of the catwalk. By song’s end, the billowing cloud of fabric illuminated with the inclusive colors of the LGBTQ rainbow.
‘We are are all born superstars’
“Killah,” which opened Act III, certainly lived up to its name. The number’s industrial-strength groove was killer. The choreography was killer. And Gaga was killer. Dancing in a black Elizabethan gown decorated with red roses, Gaga seduced the audience as she sang in front of a humongous skull that followed her every limber gesture. The dance macabre continued with “Zombieboy,” a number Gaga sang from the top of a spiral staircase, while a gaggle of ghoulish dancers wearing matching purple maitre d jackets whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
For all its spectacular stage scenes and razzle-dazzle theatrics surrounding Lady Gaga’s turmoil with her creative psyche and/or inner-demons, the parts of the show that is going to be remembered fondly for years to come are not the ones with the outlandish costumes or choreographed dancing. It’s going to be the ones that gave us an emotionally unguarded Gaga, connecting with the audience, pouring her heart out and unleashing her blessed pipes while fighting back tears of joy.
Gaga hinted that the fourth and final act was going to be special, giving a shout out to “The queer community of Boston” during a blistering version of the LGBTQ anthem “Born This Way.”
Instead of Bradley Cooper, Gaga’s co-star in the third remake (and fourth version overall of) “A Star Is Born,” she settled for Charon, aka the ferryman of Hades, in the spellbinding, gut-wrenching and soul-stirring reworking of the Academy Award-winning song “Shallow.” While Gaga is set adrift on a Venetian gondola on a catwalk doubling for the River Styx was enough to mesmerize the audience, when she cathartically wailed near the end and looked like she was going to rip her flesh off, Gaga made the number unforgettable.
‘You and me could write a bad romance’
During the concert’s homestretch, Lady Gaga, who turned 40 on March 28, became very emotional on how the Bay State crowd celebrated her milestone birthday, with a cavalcade of beautiful signs with moving messages and even a home-baked cake.
“Thank you for always accepting me for who I am and cheering me on,” Gaga said before going into a powerful rendition of “How Bad Do You Want Me,” which was followed by a glorious and triumphant “The Edge of Glory,” where she tweaked to reflect playing in Beantown.
Then Gaga made a special promise with the audience for her 60th.
“Even though I will come back sooner, will you meet me in Boston in 20 years?” Gaga said. “I just want you to know I will figure it out. I will find you.”
Sounds like a date.
Before closing up the main set with “Vanish Into You,” in which she mingled with her “little monsters” and signed several much sought-after autographs, the encore “Bad Romance,” which she performed with elongated chicken claws, and a curtain-call reprise of “How Bad Do U Want Me,” with the singer dressed down and wearing absolutely no make-up, Gaga said it was a honor to be playing in Boston on the first show since turning 40.
The honor was all ours.
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