NYU goes Gaga at MSG!

      
Who else can bring a car, subway train, eerie replica of Central Park, and a piranha-like monster to the stage of Madison Square Garden?  No one besides Lady Gaga, that’s who!  During Gaga’s second stop on her 2011 leg of her Monster Ball Tour, she surely proved once again why she is an international mega-superstar.  During the opening act courtesy of the Scissor Sisters, Gaga’s “little monsters” sat patiently waiting for their “Mother” decked out in true Gaga-esque attire: soda cans in hair, latex body suits, enormous head pieces, sequins, leather, and newly crafted “Born This Way” denim jackets.  Yet once images of Gaga began flashing across the screen, and the first chords of “Dance in the Dark” were struck, cheers erupted from the crowd.  Ms. Germanotta arrived in the wings waving to her fans, jumping up and down, and warming up.  Climbing to the highest platform in sky-high stilettos, she performed this opening number entirely behind the screen.
      
  Lady Gaga describes her show as a “pop-electro opera” and “more like a musical than just a concert” that is modeled after a Greek Odyssey; but one that finds Gaga channeling her inner Dorothy Gale seeing as the story line closely resembles that of The Wizard of Oz.  In the story, the main character, Lady Gaga, goes on a two-and-a-half hour long adventure to find the Monster Ball-a utopian fairy-tale-esque place with equality for all.  Act One starts out with “Mother Monster” leaving a bar only to find that her car (yes-she has a real gutted out car on stage!) has broken down.  Singing about how “glitter and grease” will do the trick, she opens the hood to find—how convenient—a piano.  What a perfect time to “Just Dance”!
     The Second Act takes place when Gaga and her crew head out to the F Train on an actual subway car.  Dressed in a translucent flesh colored nun’s habit, during this set Gaga also sang “You and I,” a new single from her upcoming album “Born This Way” (and if you haven’t heard of this album yet, do you seriously go to this school?!) constantly changing the lyrics to talk about her love for New York City, and how thrilled she was to be back home.
            After singing the song, she practiced her acting skills by cautiously walking out with some of her back-up dancers gasping for air saying that she didn’t feel too good before shouting “Oh no!  A twister!”  Once the “twister” ended, not only was Gaga in a new white frilly dress with fairy wings flying upwards on an elevated platform, but she was also in a new setting—Central Park (why not Washington Square Park, Gaga?!).  Twenty-foot tall trees, benches, and lampposts were scattered around the stage.  Singing some of her more popular hits, such as “Alejandro” and “Poker Face,” she finally managed to reach her final destination.
           
Just as she changes into a green angular and multi-dimensional dress, she realizes where she is—the Monster Ball!  With a huge piranha-like monster chasing her down on stage, she sings “Paparazzi,” telling her uproarious audience that this monster is equivalent to the “monsters” of having fame; and that it would be “a ‘okay” with her if the “money and fame” was gone tomorrow only if she had “all of her fans.”  Afterwards she sings “Bad Romance” before closing with what the crowd wanted most, a replication of her Grammy performance of “Born This Way”!!
            Once again, Gaga proves to her super-monsters and haters alike, she is always on top.  With the crowd rumbling the arena with cheers and applause for their “mother,” she reassured everyone of her creativity with this spectacle that she put on, showing that she doesn’t only put on a concert, but rather displays her true performing and puts on a whole show for her fans.  From the elaborate costume changes to the sets, everything about Lady Gaga is original and creative and like no one else. 
But Lady Gaga also managed to do something else at the Garden-show the more human side of her that we were all lacking for some time.  Stripped from spikes protruding from her face or shoulders and with very minimal facial coverage, at times she almost seemed more like the girl-next-door than the alien-like creature she has come to be associated with.  What, I said almost.  Talking with her fans between (and sometimes during numbers) about her life before fame, she even gave them words of advice, saying never to let anyone tell them that they can’t “sing well enough, or dance well enough, or be pretty enough, or never win a Grammy, or sell out Madison Square Garden”.  She even went so far as to take some fan-made merchandise from those close to the stage and promised to sign them and meet the fans after the show.  Gaga’s production at MSG was not only a fun and entertaining concert, but also served to justify why she is truly the number one performer in the world.