Lady Gaga thrills at theatrical Mayhem Ball tour kickoff: Review Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY July 17, 2025 at 12:45 AM LAS VEGAS – Five songs into her concert, Lady Gaga glared and decreed: "Welcome to Mayhem. Welcome … to the opera house. This is my house.
- - - Lady Gaga thrills at theatrical Mayhem Ball tour kickoff: Review
Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY July 17, 2025 at 12:45 AM
LAS VEGAS – Five songs into her concert, Lady Gaga glared and decreed: "Welcome to Mayhem. Welcome … to the opera house. This is my house."
At the North American kickoff of her Mayhem Ball tour July 16, Gaga seized the stage at T-Mobile Arena with so much cheeky melodrama that no one would dare question whose house they were in for two hours.
Though she's performed a handful of shows around the world since her captivating Coachella sets in April, the Mayhem Ball tour has been fine-tuned for optimum fan gratification. She'll hit multiple arena dates in cities including two more in Vegas as well as Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Miami before ending in Chicago in September and taking her spectacle around the world.
Along with visuals that evoked Alice in Wonderland if she tumbled down a rabbit hole into the arms of David Bowie and Marilyn Manson, the concert confirmed that Lady Gaga is the ultimate performer.
In four acts (and a finale) with poetic names such as "Every Chessboard Has Two Queens" and "Of Velvet and Vice," Gaga, her team of 20-plus dancers and a robust band galloped through songs and sets to rival any Broadway musical.
More: Lady Gaga setlist: All the songs setting her Mayhem Ball tour on fire
This was a monster mash in the coolest sense, a place where feather plumes and black lace bodices co-exist with billowing capes and knee-high marching boots. Where the pop-goth of "Abracadabra," the disco-fied "LoveGame" and the heart-shattering balladry of "Shallow" all sound authentic. And where, as Gaga reminded toward the end of the show, everyone is welcome and respected.
Songs from her latest studio album, "Mayhem," possessed about half of Gaga's setlist, with past loves taking the rest. The themes of the new album explore the dualities of chaos and wonder, darkness and light, and so goes this enchanting production.
The backdrop is a series of white columns with scalloped edges, a blank palette for green lighting to highlight "Garden of Eden" and purple hues to accompany "Killah," perhaps a subtle nod to the Prince-influenced funk rocker.
Gaga often acted as the Pied Piper of her parade of dancers, strutting and stomping down a catwalk that stretched halfway onto the floor of the arena, every dangled wrist and bent elbow choreographed to perfection. Even though she was in lockstep with her fleet-footed troupe, Gaga was also singing like the powerhouse that has earned her 14 Grammys and smoldering with the chameleonic intensity that has secured her respect as an actress.
Lady Gaga performed a free concert May 3 on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach.
She might be sporting long, blond hair buried in a sandbox of skeletons for "Perfect Celebrity," its wry commentary spilling from her crimson lips, or urging fans to "put your paws up" while twirling in a black taffeta gown for "ZombieBoy." And of course she and her fierce den of dancers pranced under plumes of pyro for a joyful singalong of "Born This Way."
As typical of a Gaga concert, the elaborate sets are exhilarating and the costumes a Halloween dream. But the most potent moments are when she shelves the broken windup doll twitches and chest-heaving theatrics and allows her pure voice to soar.
Her vocals were their own ballet during "Million Reasons," which she performed for the first time since 2020, but her gripping versions of "Shallow" and "Die With a Smile" resonated the most deeply on this night.
Her slow-ride in a gondola during "Shallow" was a soothing visual to the gorgeous prayer the ballad becomes in this evocative solo version. For "Die With a Smile," Gaga slid behind a piano to lead the sold-out crowd in a singalong of her smash with Bruno Mars, hitting every massive note with seeming ease.
While Gaga has inhabited many personas in her professional life, the beauty of her live performances also live in the quiet moments, when she drops the characters and becomes Stefani Germanotta for a few minutes.
Her relationship with her fans has always been paramount ("I love you more and more every year," she said) and their shared idiosyncrasies are her currency. It doesn't matter if Gaga is in her "Artpop" phase, a jazz turn or creating "Mayhem," she and her Little Monsters remain in completely committed love affair.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lady Gaga thrills on Mayhem Ball tour: Concert review
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