POP REVIEW; Madonna's Latest Self, a Mix of Her Old Ones (original) (raw)

Arts|POP REVIEW; Madonna's Latest Self, a Mix of Her Old Ones

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/arts/pop-review-madonna-s-latest-self-a-mix-of-her-old-ones.html

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

POP REVIEW

May 26, 2004

Madonna calls her new traveling show the Re-Invention World Tour, and, if anything, the name seems a bit too obvious. (You don't see John Kerry crisscrossing the country on a tour called Lots of Speeches.) For more than two decades she has stayed in the spotlight by shunning it every year or two, retreating to remake herself and then returning anew.

When you imagine Madonna, you don't see a single image but a time-lapse photograph, with one persona melting and warping into the next. It's an open-ended process, and when she's at her brilliant best, it's easy to believe that she could keep reinventing herself forever.

But where do those old selves go? That's what Madonna tried to figure out at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Monday night, when she played the first date of a tour that's scheduled to end in Lisbon in mid-September. (Her six-night stand at Madison Square Garden begins June 16.) This was a dense, dizzying, often incoherent, sometimes exhilarating night, starring a great performer who often found herself shadowboxing with her own past lives.

Madonna's last album, ''American Life'' (Warner Brothers/Maverick), wasn't a big success, so this is in some small sense a comeback tour. Her seemingly happy marriage to Guy Ritchie, her new career writing children's books, her diminishing interest in sexual provocation: all of this may make Madonna happy, but it doesn't keep her fans salivating. So her new tour is designed to remind them why they loved her in the first place.

The night began with an ominous recitation from the Book of Revelation, and then Madonna emerged in a sparkly bustier for ''Vogue,'' a tribute to New York night life that now sounds more like the soundtrack to an instructional Pilates video. ''Strike a pose,'' Madonna sang, and then she did, supporting herself on her forearms while her booted and stockinged feet kicked the sky.

Madonna's old infatuation with decadence has largely given way to an obsession with physical and mental health: her Web site, Madonna.com, reports that she requires ''25 cases of kabbalah water provided backstage nightly,'' and she paid cheerful but earnest tribute to her new favorite spiritual beliefs throughout the show: near the end she sang ''Papa Don't Preach'' while wearing a T-shirt that read ''Kabbalists Do It Better.''

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT