Britney Spears bring her 'Circus' to town

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on March 15, 2009 at 4:58 PM, updated March 15, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Britney Spears, performing at the New Orleans Arena on March 3

A lot of pop stars go through the trouble of actually singing at their concerts. But not Britney Spears. She lip-synched her entire Friday night show at the Prudential Center in Newark, with the possible exception of ballad "Everytime." So she didn't waste a lot of energy trying to stay on key, or project emotion. And she didn't threaten to draw attention away from her remarkably athletic dancers, or the propulsive beats of the canned backing tracks.

On her next tour, maybe she'll figure out a way to present a concert without even being in the building.

It's astonishing that some pop critics have bought into the comeback hype surrounding this tour, which began on March 3, and also included a Saturday night concert at the Prudential Center.

Yes, she showed up on time on Friday night. She danced reasonably well (though her backing troupe did most of the hard stuff), and didn't do anything to embarrass herself. And yes, audience members seemed thrilled just to be in her presence. But, musically, this was a non-event.

Aware, perhaps, that she has nothing to offer on a musical level, Spears surrounded herself with a spectacle: The show had an elaborate circus theme, echoing the title of her December album, "Circus."

It was literally a three-ring show, with a large circular stage in the middle of the arena and two smaller circular stages connected to it by ramps. Dancers frequently descended from the rafters on wires, and during one of her most sexually charged songs, "Touch of My Hand," Spears and one of the male dancers rose off the ground, writhing together suggestively.

Acrobats entertained the audience before Spears came on, and jugglers and clowns helped passed the time later, as the she changed costumes. During a medley of "Ooh Ooh Baby" and "Hot As Ice," she became a magician's assistant, stepping into a box for a sawed-in-half routine, then entering a booth, where she was made to disappear.

She also played a whip-wielding ringmaster on the show-opening "Circus." And she was wheeled around in a cage like a dangerous lion during "Piece of Me," as self-referential lines from the song like "I'm Mrs. 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' " and "I'm Mrs. 'Oh my God that Britney's shameless' " -- rendered as newspaper headlines -- flashed on the video screens.

"Me Against the Music" turned into a Bollywood-themed production number. Encore "Womanizer" was preceded by a career-spanning video montage (the footage of her kissing Madonna at MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards got the biggest cheer), and was accompanied by show-capping fireworks and confetti.

Spears sat on the handle of a giant umbrella, which rose off the ground, for "Everytime." For once, her vocals seemed real. You could actually hear her breathe between words. In other numbers, her voice didn't convey the slightest strain, even when she was dancing energetically or jerking her head around.

At the start of the show, Spears was introduced, via video, by Internet gossip columnist Perez Hilton, who gushed about her so feverishly he seemed creepy. (The video has been used at other tour stops, too.) It was a smart move to entice Hilton into her camp. Though last year he described the "Circus" album as being "not that good," he has lavished praise on the tour itself, claiming that it has enabled her to "rightfully reclaim her role as the Princess of Pop."

Another smart move, at least on a financial level, was building a commercial for tour sponsor Virgin Mobile (a cell phone service) into the show with a between-songs skit that had something to do with a phone call.

Between "Boys" and the desperate-to-shock "If U Seek Amy" (where Spears sneaks a dirty word into the lyrics like a fifth-grader), she barked like a drill sergeant, ordering her dancers to drop and give her ten. Then she led them in a call-and-response chant: "I don't know what you've been told/This mama is in control."

Believe it if you want. But if she really is in control, why did she put together a show that makes her seem like a robot?