Mark SavageMusic correspondent
Getty ImagesLady Gaga is dancing on a human skull. Lady Gaga is buried in a shallow grave. Lady Gaga is serenading a corpse.
Lady Gaga is also teetering around on crutches, cavorting with zombies and crossing the River Styx.
Welcome to the Mayhem Ball, a magnificent and operatic tour de force; that pitches the star’s inner angels and demons in a fight for her very soul.
Premiered at this year’s Coachella festival, it reached the UK on Monday night, for a run of eight shows at London’s O2 Arena and Manchester’s Co-Op Live.
The transfer from outdoor festival stage to the confines of an arena only heightened the show’s vampy, gothic energy – as Gaga raced through two decades of hits, from her debut single Just Dance to her latest hit The Dead Dance, from the Netflix series Wednesday.
The latter came with a star cameo from two of the show’s young stars, Emma Myers and Evie Templeton, who pirouetted around Gaga and her dancers in wispy bridal gowns, before breaking into choreography from the show’s second season.
The singer later posted video of their rehearsals on Tiktok.
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Getty ImagesThe tour comes hot on the heels of Gaga’s latest album, Mayhem, widely regarded as a return to high-concept pop after a spell of method acting and jazz crooning.
The album, like the show, is a reckoning with her past.
She questions whether her career was really worth sacrificing her privacy, her sanity and even her health, as punishing live shows exacerbated her fibromyalgia, a condition that cause chronic, full-body pain.
On stage, the tussle plays out between her light side (angelic, naive, floating across the stage in flowing blonde curls) and her inner darkness (raven-haired and manic, with convulsive choreography).
During Poker Face, the two sides face each other on a giant chess board; as Gaga is confronted by a doppelgänger dressed head-to-toe in face-obscuring lace (a nod to the star’s 2010 Brit Awards outfit).
“What are you doing here in my house,” screams Gaga, striking her old self to the ground and demanding, “off with her head!”
The ghost of Gaga past re-emerges for Perfect Celebrity, writhing with camp energy in a shallow grave as she sings about the pressure and torture of stardom.
For a dramatically stripped-bare version of Paparazzi, she’s on crutches, snarling at photographers, but soaking up the public’s adoration until it frees her to walk unaided.
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Getty ImagesDoes the story make sense? Sure, kind of. It’s about as coherent as any pop concert narrative – ie not very – but Gaga’s visceral commitment makes it soar.
Her vocals are rich and gutsy, even through kinetic choreography that requires her to be in almost constant motion; and the music is given a gothic overhaul, painted black and scuffed up with industrial guitar chords and sawtooth bass lines.
Even Shallow, Gaga’s Oscar-winning A Star Is Born ballad, opens with an unsettling synth pulse , as it soundtracks the show’s climactic final act.
She performs it in a gondola, floating down the catwalk as she flees the chaos of the main stage for the sanctuary of her piano.
Sitting down at the keys, she’s finally at peace, playing the heartfelt ballads A Million Reasons and Die With A Smile, without the accompaniment of her band.
“My first big arena show was in the UK,” she tells the audience. “You believed in me then. Thank you for believing in me now.
“No matter what, we’ve found each other through the music and through community.”
To celebrate, she dives deep into her songbook and plays impromptu versions of Speechless, from her 2009 Fame Monster album, and The Edge Of Glory, from 2011’s Born This Way.
Fans, who know the standard setlist by heart, are enraptured, singing back every word at full volume. At the end, Gaga wipes away a tiny tear.
Getty ImagesAfter two-and-a-half hours, the show ends with Gaga announcing she has defeated the “mistress of mayhem”.
As the entire set catches fire, she’s wheeled out on a hospital gurney, surrounded by dancers in red plague doctors costumes, who operate on her lifeless body.
Frankenstein-like, she springs back to life for a show-stopping, floor rattling version of Bad Romance, that feels both cathartic and celebratory.
“It’s been almost 20 years,” she reflects, “but I want to make a pact with some of you.
“If I come back 20 years from now, will you come to the show?
“You gotta promise me now, otherwise I’m just gonna roll up with a keyboard, and I’ll be playing on the street. I’ll be here no matter what.”
In the storyline of the show, that feels like a revelation.
Gaga has found a path through the chaos, a way to keep performing without surrendering her soul. On previous tours, I’ve often felt her ambition was let down by self-indulgence or messy execution. Not this time.
The Mayhem Ball finds the pop star operating at the peak of her powers. Fancy that.
Getty ImagesLady Gaga setlist
Act I: Of Velvet And Vice
- Bloody Mary
- Abracadabra
- Judas
- Aura
- Scheiße
- Garden of Eden
- Poker Face
Act II: And She Fell Into A Gothic Dream
- Perfect Celebrity
- Disease
- Paparazzi
- LoveGame
- Alejandro
- The Beast
Getty ImagesAct III: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name
- Killah
- Zombieboy
- The Dead Dance
- LoveDrug
- Applause
- Just Dance
Act IV: Every Chessboard Has Two Queens
- Shadow of a Man
- Kill for Love
- Summerboy
- Born This Way
- Million Reasons
- Shallow
- Die With a Smile
- Speechless
- The Edge of Glory
- Vanish Into You
Finale: The Eternal Aria of the Monster Heart
Encore
- How Bad Do U Want Me
- Dance In The Dark
