If Britney Spears' Circus tour was designed with one thing in mind, it seemed to be to create a show where the pop star would do as little as possible.
The storm of controversy over Spears' lip-synching during her first ever Australian tour developed as soon as the singer performed in Perth last week, and by the time the show arrived in Sydney most of the fans were well aware they wouldn't be hearing the real thing.
Promoters for Spears said the star mimed her songs to allow her to concentrate more on her dancing. But considering how poorly Spears danced at Acer Arena last night, it would be more than fair to assume the star would have better entertained her audience if she sang live while standing still.
Most of Spears' movement around the stage would be best described as walking with a sense of purpose, before turning her head suddenly and changing direction, something a professional performer should be able to do while singing live.
Even when Spears did dance it was hardly impressive, missing moves and often glancing to those surrounding her to catch up on the choreography. If she is going to choose between singing and dancing, she should do at least one of the things well.
The Circus concept of Spears' tour by-and-large seems like a distraction from her lack of stage presence. The acrobats, clowns and other circus performers may have shown plenty of talent but the restlessness of the audience during their antics on stage clearly showed it was not what the fans had come to see.
Excluding support act DJ Havana Brown, the Circus show lasted for an hour-and-a-half but it seemed like Spears was only on stage for perhaps two-thirds of the time, with long dance sequences, acrobatic stunts and even video clip footage of the singer acting as an increasingly dull substitute.
Every one of two songs Spears would disappear from the stage for between two to five minutes, with the lapses sucking much of the energy out of the venue.
Towards the end of the show the boredom could be seen on the audience's faces.
The more recent material that took up the bulk of her show was also tiring after a while and it was only towards the very end of the performance that her best songs, Toxic and Hit Me Baby One More Time finally got at least some of the crowd onto their feet.
Though the show was officially sold out, tickets soon found their way onto eBay at drastically reduced prices, with ninemsn obtaining a $99 ticket for just $35 four days away from the concert. Even with slashed prices, only around 90 percent of the seats in Acer Arena were taken. It's no small feat for a pop star to fill the venue three times but it's a worry when people buy overpriced tickets only to not bother showing up.
But the tour does show at least some encouraging signs for Spears. Despite her declining star appeal and some embarassing antics in the past, she does still have fans who aren't overly emotional YouTube users. The overwhelming majority of the audience were made up of girls ranging from their late teens to early twenties, with women outnumbering men in the audience by a six to one margin.
Last night's lacklustre performance, which seems to be indicative of the whole tour says one of two things about Britney Spears. Either the tour was rushed and she was underrehearsed, or that she simply isn't putting the effort into the concerts. No matter the reason for the poor performances, fans deserve better for the good money they shelled out to see her.
CORRECTION: This article was first published with a reference to Kylie Minogue miming songs in concert. There is no reason to believe that Kylie Minogue has ever mimed or lip-synched during a live concert. ninemsn retracts the statement and regrets the error.
Front page
RSS Feed