Madonna - The Girlie Show (Live Down Under) (1993) Review

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(More customer reviews)I remember travelling to London to see Madonna's opening night of this Tour in September 1993. I was very excited & moreso because up until that point I thought that the Blonde Ambition was the most lavish spectacular ever brought to stage & screen. What could Madonna do next? The Girlie Show is definitely not a duplication of Madonna's 1990 Tour. Lavish, yes, but it does not go the Greatest Hits route. Madonna at the time was getting a lot of bad press due to the nature of her Sex book (which is very bland really) & her Erotica album (which I feel is one of her best). The Girlie Show therefore had to be something else & it is. Lipsyncing aside (Erotica/Justify My Love/Vogue), The Girlie Show is an impressive hommage to spectacles of old from harlequins to troubadours, 70s Disco & Deitrich, Madonna's Tour demonstrates her cultural awareness & her influences. The show, like the Blonde Ambition Tour is divided into segments.
SEGMENT 1: The Dita files. A series of darker dance numbers performer by Madonna in her Dita outfit. Erotica, the show's opener is Madonna's sole presence on stage, with dancers in the background. Good for what it is. But does not get the juices flowing, as the songs lyrics promise. Fever rocks - not one of my fave songs by Madonna, but she gives it plenty of life & sings it live! as well - she lipsynced to this one in London. Quite a sexy routine also with 2 dancers. Madonna flirts with the crowd. Vogue is an elaborate spectacle, with Madonna, Nikki & Donna wearing what look chandeliers on their heads, & indulge in artsy dancing. Cool. Rain demonstrates Madonna can sing & harmonise.
SEGMENT2: 70s DISCO. This part of the show is a partayyyy sequence with a totally blinding version of Express Yourself, moving into the feather boa dance routine of Deeper & Deeper, before slowing down a bit for Why's It So Hard & then In This Life, which has Madonna alone on the steps singing about lost friends. Bless.
SEGMENT3: WHAT IS GOING ON? SECTION: Madonna does Like A Virgin as Marlent Deitrich, dressed up as a man flirts outrageously with dancing girls on Bye Bye Baby & then proceeds into the most unexpected live! song ever - I'm Going Bananas. Nuts.
THE HITS: We then move into a wondrous rendtion of La Isla Bonita, spanish dancing et al & then a Military version of Holiday, which gets the audience livened up & Madonna genuinely appears to be enjoying herself & smiling without force.
The traditional expression save the best for last is true here. The encores are two very different sounds & images. Madonna goes to Ascot Horse Racing is the theme of Justify My Love, a very decadent type of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, with eloquent top hats, tails & lavish dresses (which is more 1920s than 1780s). Madonna's outfit is a combination of man-woman. The song is sultry & one I would never have imagined to be done live. It livens up at the end with the dancers all performing a hand-clapping routine. Bonkers. The showstopper is again a song I was not expecting, yet one of my faves. A totally reworked version of Everybody which breaks into Dance To The Music & then becomes all funky. It is euphoric & the total climax to the show IMHO. Add to this a secret clown who turns out to be Madonna & you have the impression that depsite the lack of greater hits like Papa Don't Preach/Open Your Heart, etc that Madonna does want to entertain her crowd & moreover interact with them. She does so well, or at least as warmly as I've ever seen her. Bad press asides, the sheer content of the show alone is enough to remind fans why they attended the show (& there are A LOT at this show - & she played 4 nights at this cricket ground as well as performing in other Australian cities!!!!) & why Madonna is one of the best at her game

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