by Paul Cashmere – November 12 2009
photo by Ros O’Gorman

Lets start by getting one thing straight. Rebekah Devlin, who started what quickly developed into Britney-gate this week in Australia, clearly got it very, very wrong. At the Britney Spears show tonight at Rod Laver Arena, there were no mass walk-outs, there were no disgruntled fans and the audience was genuinely entertained.

Just for the record, I am not a Britney fan but ‘Circus’ is a very good show. Forget the “but she mimes” argument. It is irrelevant for Britney. She is a popstar. She has never pretended to be a serious musical act like Radiohead. She is what she is and has never denied it.

Keep in mind at parts of their shows, Cher has lip-synched, Madonna lip-synchs, even Roger Waters did it. So lets just eliminate that from the scorecard and score the Britney show for what it is … a very entertaining show aimed at her core fans.

If you are a Britney fan, you are going to love ‘Circus’. It is over two hours of escapism and yes it is a real circus. Actually, if Ms. Devlin focused on the freak show featuring the midget or an amputee on a trampoline she might have been able to beat-up a better story. Did she even notice that? Not that it mattered. It was visually compelling.

Yes, a Circus it truly is, with magicians, acrobats, a tightrope and … was that Perez Hilton dressed up as The Queen?

The costume changes are covered up with musical segways. One featured Marilyn Manson ‘Sweet Dreams’ and another Michael Jackson ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’.

Lets give a special shout-out to the two kids in the front row. Britney’s children Sean and Jayden watched what Mom did for a living with Mom’s new beau Jason Trawick . For the record Ms Devlin, Jayden left earlier so your headline tomorrow should read “Even Britney’s Kid Can’t Stand Her”. Sean left before the encore, so you can beat that up into a headline as well.

In Vegas, this show would be up for “show of the year”. In Perth, based on a one-woman jury, it doesn’t rate at all. Melbourne, the home of Australian theatre, accepted another good show.

Britney is more than 90 shows into a world tour with Circus. How funny that Ms Devlin wasted her 15 minutes of fame on something that has never pretended to me anything more than a pop show.

Source