It’s called the Back To Basics Tour but there’s nothing remotely basic about the elaborately-staged extravaganza on display tonight. A mixed-up confusion of Moulin Rouge, burlesque and circus imagery, every song is an audacious, all-singing, all dancing set-piece that must’ve taken months to put together.
After some tasty pre-show tunes that includes James Brown, Ray Charles and Carla Thomas (singing ‘Tramp’ of course) we first see Ms. Aguilera descending a glittering flight of stairs flanked by a troupe of dancers like a 1940s Hollywood starlet in a Cecil B DeMille production. She spends the rest of the evening disappearing into the floor of the stage, only to reappear on some contraption or other all the while being shadowed by dancers and, at one point, a pair of precariously balanced trapeze artists.
Thing is, she doesn’t need all these trappings – she has one of the finest voices in pop right now and when she belts out songs like ‘Dirrty’ or the retro soul of ‘Back In The Day’ she makes Britney sound plastic and would probably give Madonna a run for her money.
It doesn’t all work so well, though, and I’m not quite sure if the domestic violence scene portrayed during ‘Oh Mother’ made sense. Likewise with the cringeful video montage featuring fan testimonials (“Christina, you are my inspiration,” etc.) that preceded her hand-waving ballad ‘Beautiful’. No such worries about the partied-up ‘Lady Marmalade’, which had them dancing in the aisles.
Then, just when you think she’s on a roll, the strangest thing happens. A bloke is pulled from the audience, manacled to an upright circular yoke which then falls back at a 45 degree angle while Ms Aguilera and her gaggle of gals set upon him with whips, much to the delight of a shrieking audience. In a flash she was gone with Nina Simone’s ‘Love Me And Leave Me’ blasting out of the PA.
Oddly enjoyable, but also just odd.