Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball is packed with theatrical majesty

“Welcome to the opera house, New York City.”

Coming from just about any other performer at Madison Square Garden, this phrase would not feel remotely believable. The famed Manhattan arena is wrapped in ads for Chase and Lexus; the audience has to essentially walk through a shopping mall to get to their seats.

For Lady Gaga, though? It kind of works.

The pop star’s current run of concert underplays (if once can consider seven sold out nights at a 20,000-capacity room an “underplay”) is wrapped up in breathtaking theatricality and majestic production; a maximalist look to fit her maximalist sound. By the same token, it’s very tastefully executed, and the vibe began before the show even did: with a recording of Puccini’s Carmen being piped through the venue speakers as early arrivals found their seats.

The production went on to reveal itself in waves, next with the stage decor: faux-stone columns and ornate archways inhabited by the band and dancers, flowing velvety curtains draping the backdrop. There were stunning set-pieces, like the towering cage filled with writhing hands and arms that Gaga sat atop of during the grinding industrial pop of “Abracadabra,” and the colossus-size skull that rolls in from backstage during the funky “Killah.” By the time Gaga rides a macabre gondola across the mist-covered catwalk, guided by a cloaked quartet of dancers in the shadows, it almost shouldn’t be “Shallow” we’re hearing but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Music Of The Night.”

So, yes, a major impression the Mayhem Ball makes is that it’s the work of an eccentric theater kid all grown up — and yes, Lady Gaga did act in musicals as a teen named Stefani Germanotta who did the whole performing arts camp thing; and yes, this concert felt distinctively Broadway at the biggest scale imaginable. But it’s also the work of a multi-hyphenate in peak form as a songwriter, a vocalist, a dancer, and a performer with a bold vision. Mayhem is her sixth studio album of original material, and for an artist celebrated for her Bowie-esque shape-shifting, it’s a return to form where every track is a high-octane banger that draws listeners ruthlessly into her world.

Onstage, Mayhem‘s songs fuse with impactful visuals. Most stunning is “Perfect Celebrity” into “Disease,” a heavy rock stretch Gaga performs from inside a sarcophagus-esque sand pit, surrounded by the grasping bones of skeletons that slowly reveal themselves to be her dancers. (Submerged by sand? How are they breathing under there?) Other moments have a more understated effect, the way “Garden Of Eden” crescendos with her and the dance crew marching to the tip of the catwalk, twisting, twitching, and simultaneously dropping to their knees in an extended hero pose, holding it and silently breathing as cheers filled up the arena.

And though the presentation of Gaga’s back-catalog hits — so many hits: “Poker Face,” “Love Game,” “Alejandro,” “Just Dance” — was less ornate, it had its powerful moments as well, whether in words (“Born This Way” was sent out to the queer community: “This show was made with love for you, because we need the world to love right now”) or visuals (the arena-length fabric train that followed her up the catwalk on “Paparazzi,” then lit up in rainbow colors).

As she told it back in the spring, Lady Gaga was not planning on touring this year. There were a handful of planned festival engagements following her album release, and that was it. When Mayhem received such a strong reception, residencies were announced in Vegas, Seattle, Miami, Chicago, and an extended stretch in her hometown of New York, which continues tonight and concludes on September 6th and 7th.

At opening night, she was effusive about her love for the city: “You made me a star,” she gushed. “You raised me, you believed in me so much.” The feeling was clearly mutual. Fans dressed up in homage to her different eras (a cowboy for the Joanne years and a witch for the Mayhem years; cheers to the Artpop fan in smeared RGB facepaint). They sent extremely personal notes of appreciation to an ever-changing scroll pre-show. (“As a neurodivergant child who stood out, Gaga made me feel like I belonged,” wrote one fan, while another talked of finding strength and healing in her music after being assaulted.)

Just before an emotional solo piano rendition of “Hair,” a visibly moved Lady Gaga told the crowd that she felt like she was going to fight her way through the entire concert (an apt way of describing her kinetic performance style) until her longtime dancer China Taylor offered a sage bit of advice: “Sometimes you don’t need to fight; sometimes, all you need to do is show up.” She took a beat, looked around the room at the glow of LED wristbands and cameraphones, said “No more fighting, just showing up,” and launched into the softest show-stopper you’ve ever heard.

The Mayhem Ball continues tonight with the North American leg concluding in September, before heading to Europe and southeast Asia in the fall and winter; full dates here.