USA Today: Britney Spears' Piece Of Me Changes Residency Tune

[wontstoptilyoubreatheheavy]

Britney Spears' 'Piece of Me' changes residency tune

 

 

Britney Spears' new Vegas show, 'Piece of Me,' brings the club scene to a 7,000-seat theater

 

 

LAS VEGAS - In 90 energy-packed minutes Friday,Britney Spears rewrote the Las Vegas residency playbook.

 

Where the Elvis-pioneered tradition has long limited itself to, let's just say, more mature artists with decades of hits to their names, Spears, 32, stomped into town with a 21-hit salute to her 15 years of dance confections the artfully melded spectacle with stagecraft.

 

Spears' mission in a nutshell: to turn a cavernous 7,000-seat amphitheater into a raging nightclub. Mission accomplished. Only during the show's three slower songs - which included the poignant Perfume- did the sell-out crowd bother to take its seats.

 

Britney: Piece of Me, which will run for 98 shows over two years at Planet Hollywood's The Axistheater here, made its intentions clear from its opening number, the infectious will.i.am-produced hit, Work Bitch.

 

Floating down to her office - a massive 100-foot-wide stage flanked by panels that displayed images from 60 projectors - in a huge steel sphere, Spears quickly strutted to the front of a phalanx of 16 alien-masked dancers and led them through an intense workout in front of family (sis, brother, mom and dad) and famous friends (Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Selena Gomez).

 

From there on it was non-stop club tracks anchored to exquisite sets and dazzling choreography. One could almost make the argument that this show might entertain a non-Britney fan thanks to its production values, which is likely not the case with other residencies - if you don't like Elton John, not even a $10 million piano would keep you seated for his Vegas hit parade.

 

Case is point was Toxic, which started with the sound of thunder as the dance troupe wriggled on the ground like extras from Avatar. Moments later, in rolled a massive tree with the show's star perched high in a branch. She suddenly jumped off into space, ripping a page from Cirque du Soleil.

 

And the hits kept coming, including Oops...I Did It Again (cue Britney in a brassy dark wig and lingerie), Scream and Shout (with a two-story video image of will.i.am singing along), and Freakshow (which subjected TV host Mario Lopez to a few minutes of S&M).

 

Eye-candy was everywhere, whether in the form of the taut dancers' bodies or the lavish sets, none more so than the Circus-themed number featuring creepy human marionettes and raging flames, with Spears delivered on stage in the middle of a ring of fire. When she sang "All eyes on me at the center of ring," it was redundant.

 

If a criticism must be meted out, it would center on Spears' insistence that well-oiled show not deviate remotely from its tracks. What little she did engage with the crowd ("How are you doin' Las Vegas?") stuck to the same script as Thursday's preview show before casino industry workers.

One longed for a bit more intimacy from Spears, especially on opening night with stars on hand. But if the singer has been consistent on one point over the years it's that she is actually by nature shy.

As for the oft-raised specter of lip-syncing, it's truly impossible to gauge whether there was any funny business with the vocals. For starters, these club-oriented tunes all require such different effects that surely her voice had to be run through computers to get the right tone so it corresponded to what was recorded in the studio.

 

What's more though, with a performance this heavily focused on athleticism, asking a singer to deliver pitch-perfect vocals with no digital assistance is a bit like asking an NFL running back to run for 10 yards while carrying a tune - all game long. This wasn't Ella Fitzgerald with a pianist folks, it was a pop star bringing to life the songs we crank up in the shower or at the gym. It was about the wonderfully raunchy sizzle of it all, not a virgin vocal.

 

Odds are Piece of Me will prove a good bet for Vegas and Spears alike. The former gets another hip young dance-oriented star to add to its growing stable of popular EDM heroes; DJs Tiesto, David Guetta and Calvin Harris all are performing here this week. And the latter gets a chance to remind people just why much of the 2000s belonged to her. Before there was Katy, there was Britney.
 

In fact, listening to some of the more empowering songs that helped close the show, including Stronger and Till The End of the World, one had to acknowledge that all three pop divas in the audience this night owed a huge debt to the mother of two on stage. She may not be the 18-year-old girl next door who shocked the world silly, but she's still a force to be reckoned with.

As her rendition of I'm A Slave 4 U raced to a close, Spears cocked her head as the spotlight lit up her hair. Pause. "You like that?" Spotlight off. One giant audience roar.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/12/28/britney-spears-piece-of-me-debut/4220807/

[itzbritneybitch]

reviews have been really good