So, I went to see Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour, when it pulled into Las Vegas, last Saturday – and I couldn’t be happier with that decision.  And credit where it’s due – where, besides Las Vegas, can a guy decide, at the eleventh hour, to attend a long-sold-out concert; and (with one well-placed phone call) get four of the best seats in the house?  It’s a short list: I assure you.

But about Madonna.  Sure, I was skeptical.  And yes, I whined about it.  But as I sit here, replaying the night in my head, what I remember most are the fun time I was having with my friends, and the smile on my face.  Okay, and also how the woman at the end of our row must’ve had the world’s smallest bladder – but still…

It’s safe to say that I didn’t know more than a third of the songs; and yet I’m hard pressed to recall any moment where I wasn’t thoroughly entertained.  She knows she’s charging a lot for these tickets, and she wants to make sure everyone gets a show.  I’ll bet that more is spent on the costumes for the dancers to wear in one scene; than for all of the costumes in the past three concerts I’ve attended, combined.

Of course, it’s all about what happened when Madonna was onstage – and she was living.  Critics and reviewers who’ve commented that she just seems to be having fun, up there – they couldn’t have been more on the money.  At the Las Vegas concert, she got down and did a shot, with an audience member; and later, flirted with another audience member, telling him about the three rings of marriage (the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering - hahaha).  She played the ukulele, while leading the audience in a sing-along of “True Blue,” and while singing a cover-version of Edith Piaf’s “Ma Vie en Rose” (according to Madonna, “one of the greatest love songs, ever written”).  She went electric for “Burning Up,” and electro-acoustic for “Secret” and “Ghosttown.”

It wouldn’t be a Madonna concert, without her sticking it to organized religion (especially Catholicism).  So there were tarted-up nuns spinning on stripper poles (each one topped with a cross); Madonna genuflecting at the feet of a priest; then a Last Supper vignette, followed by Madonna being bound on the alter and undoing the knots on her arms like some sort of latter-day Houdini (Ho’dini?).

Now, I know the concert is to promote her Rebel Heart album; but I’d have cut the number of songs from that album to seven, and added a couple from Like a Prayer – like “Till Death Do Us Part” which, despite its allusions to the darker side of Madonna’s marriage to Sean Penn, is an absurdly catchy tune.

And never let it be said that Madonna skimps on the details!  Taking into account the costumes (just gorgeous – overseen by Arianne Phillips – and featuring designs by Alexander Wang, Fausto Puglisi, Gucci, Lilly e Violetta, Miu Miu, Moschino, Nicolas Jebran, On Aura Tout Vu, Prada, and Swarovski), and the sets, and the dancers, and the staging, and the lights – if, as the adage goes, the devil truly is in the details; then might not Madonna finally have overcome her demons?  If this upbeat, happy Madonna is any sign, then let us all say “Amen.”

In closing, I implore you all to remember these two things that Madonna preaches, about happiness: “…it’s contagious, and it’s got the word ‘penis’ inside of it!”

Now, “Let the choir sing!”

Madonna | Rebel Heart Tour
MGM Grand | Las Vegas
Saturday, October 24th
Click HERE for info

Get into it!
#Madonna