User:LuxiromChick/sandbox2

Concert synopsis
The show was divided into four different segments: Dominatrix, Studio 54, Weimar Cabaret while the last one was an encore. It began with an orchestral parade mimicking circus music followed by a Pierrot - who makes several cameos later - appearing from behind the red curtain. Next, a half-naked pole dancer appears sliding down a metal pole dangling high above the stage. Madonna then emergs from the stage behind the pole dancer, dressed as a black-masked dominatrix to perform "Erotica" while rubbing a riding crop between her legs and with her back-up dancers posing and dancing suggestively around her. "Fever" is the next song to be performed. For this performance Madonna partially strips and proceeds to straddle and dance suggestively with 2 half-naked male dancers before disappearing among flames. Next comes "Vogue" which was re-invented with an Asian context and featured Madonna wearing a black beaded, Hindu-inspired headdress based partly on the works Erté and Zizi Jeanmaire, while all her back up dancers realize a gestural dance. After, Madonna and her back up singers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory put on black see through robes, and began performing a Motown-influenced "Rain". This performance is followed by a "Singin' In The Rain" dance interlude, featuring the pierrot and several dancers doing a choreography with umbrellas.

The next segment begins with a disco-styled performance of "Express Yourself" with the stage decked in Mylar curtains and glittering disco balls. The performance begins with a distorted voice claiming "I'm gonna take you to a place you've never been before". Afterwards, Madonna descends from the ceiling on a giant disco ball, wearing a blond afro wig, 1970's style halters and royal blue bell-bottom pants. Then her back up singers, Haris and De Lory, join her and the three woman perform the song together. The end of "Express Yourself" was connected to the next song "Deeper and Deeper", which features a male member from the audience jumping onto the stage trying to dance with Madonna who calls out security. Eventually he rips off his breakaway pants to reveal himself as one of the show's dancers. Having descended into an hedonistic orgy by the end of "Deeper and Deeper", the beginning of "Why's It So Hard" finds Madonna and several of her back up dancers simulating sex on top of a rising podium in the middle of the stage. She's seen then cradling some of her black female dancers, showing gestures of both maternal and paternal instincts. The next song "In This Life" is sung by Madonna standing all alone on the stage, being watched by the pierrot. She dedicates this performance to a friend who died of AIDS. "The Beast Within" is another interlude which features 2 male dancers realizing an apocalyptic dance with sexual overtones featuring Madonna, from off-stage, reciting from the Book of Revelations.

The next segment begins with "Like a Virgin" where Madonna, wearing a classic tuxedo, adopted a Marlene Dietrich-like persona singing the song with a thick German accent. Towards the end of the performance she even sang the first verse of Dietrich's signature tune, "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)". For "Bye Bye Baby" Madonna plays the role of a sideshow barker and engages in a chair routine with three androgynous female dancers. A hispanic influenced "I'm Going Bananas" is performed next with Madonna losing the hat and the jacket, revealing a blue and white striped shirt and a blue bandana underneath. For "La Isla Bonita" she is joined by a bare chested male dancer playing the acoustic guitar while singing the song in top of a rising platform. The next song to be performed was an alternate version of "Holiday", which was given a military theme and had Madonna and her dancers wearing Trench coats. Halfway through the performance Madonna paused the song for a military drill with the dancers and to interact with the audience.

The final segment of the show was an encore. It began with the performance of "Justify My Love", which featured Madonna and her dancers wearing Victorian-inspired dresses and morning coats with Madonna holding a lorgnette. Whereas the final song of the show "Everybody" finds Madonna and her troupe in denim shorts and white tops, inviting the audience to sing and dance along. Finally, as the red curtain fell and carnival music played, the pierrot emerged yet again, only to reveal its identity as Madonna herself: she closed the show by singing the phrase "Everybody is a Star".

Critical Reception
Critical reception towards The Girlie Show was generally positive. J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Madonna: An Intimate Biography described the show as a "transitional tour. While still sexy, it was still more of an innocent burlesque rather than a blatant attempt to shock". Jon Pareles from The New York Times said that "With "Blond Ambition", she was pop's least flirtatious sex symbol; in "The Girlie Show" [...] She's likable again." Pareles also praised Madonna for singing "just enough solo parts to prove she's not lip-synching" and called called her vocals "adequate", and concluded his review saying that "Part of Madonna's gift for self-promotion has been her ability to grab archetypes, harnessing others' star power to her own." Richard Corliss writing for Time also gave the show a positive review; "At once a movie retrospective, a Ziegfeld revue, a living video, an R-rated take off on Cirque du Soleil" and concluded by saying: "Madonna, once the Harlow harlot and now a perky harlequin, is the greatest show-off on earth." Stuart Lenig, author of The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock praised Madonna for being able to turn all the negative press her Sex book and her Erotica album had gathered into a popular tour; "Working feverishly, handpicking her dance company and producing an extravaganza that was part cabaret, part burlesque and part musical circus". Paul Taylor from The Independent was positive on his review of the show's opening night at London's Wembley Stadium saying that "her performance-which featured spanking, four-letter outbursts and suggestive references to oral sex and the size of one dancer's manhood clearly delighted most of her fans". Frances Hubbard from the Daily Express stated on her review that Madonna was "at her worst when she turns moody and pretentious" and that "if Madonna is on her way down, it's a gentle descent. The world's best-marketed pop goddess will be around for a while yet."

However not all reviews towards the show were positive, Tom Sheles from The Washington Post was negative on his review and felt that "Her [Madonna] attempts now to shock and titillate have become belabored self-parodies" and concluded that "Madonna's 'Girlie Show' is silly, not shocking". The London's Daily Mail proclaimed itself as a "Madonna-Free Zone", refusing to publish or show any pictures of the concert. Mark Steyn from The Mail on Sunday also gave the show a negative review, feeling that the show was more focused on the staging than on the actual music; "ever since "Material Girl" there's been a hermetic separation between the sets and the music. The stages are pure showbiz. The songs have been reduced to wallpaper. If her musical arranger was half as droll as her choreographer, her record sales wouldn't be in the doldrums". Geraldine Bloustein, author of Girl Making: A Cross-Cultural Ethnography on the Processes of Growing Up Female, commented that "The overall impression of the show was one of extreme burlesque and carnival", however she also noted that "The emphasis was on dance and movement more than on the music itself" and also noted the "..sections of pure modern ballet [with] no lyrics at all".