Cleveland performance
She came, she trilled, she conquered. The multi-octave queen of the sentimental pop ballad, Mariah Carey, marched up the aisle and ascended to the stage at the Scene Pavilion Sunday night to thrill an almost full house with an 18-song, nearly two-hour show. It featured five musicians, four backup singers, 10 dancers, eight costume changes, lots of stage props and video and, of course, enough high notes to attract every dog in Cuyahoga County. But what would a Mariah Carey show be without overkill?
We're in no danger of finding out. Her opening tune, "Heartbreaker", set the pace, as the dancers swarmed around her, and a top-hatted "artist" painted her picture at stage right. The first few songs featured a late 19th-century bohemian Paris theme with Degas and Toulouse Lautrec paintings on the video screen and performers costumed as cancan dancers, ballerinas and urchins. Carey was poured into a tiny pink and silver sequined minidress, the first of many outfits that exposed much of her admirable figure.
Carey's set list was drawn from both the lengthy list of hits she has had since she emerged in 1990 and her latest album, 2002's "Charmbracelet". It even included a song, "Can't Take That Away", from 1999's "Rainbow", selected by a vote of fans on the Internet.
Her bag of hits yielded tunes such as "Vision of Love", "Dreamlover", "Hero", spirited set-closer "Make It Happen" and "Fantasy", originally recorded with rapper ODB. It was one of several tunes on which a recorded track supplied the original rap. Her duet with Busta Rhymes, "I Know What You Want", was handled similarly.
Carey reached into "Charmbracelet" for the melodramatic ballad "Through the Rain" and an even more melodramatic take on Def Leppard's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" that started quietly, accompanied by rickety percussion, and ended in a crashing sonic tidal wave. Another new song, "Clown", ushered in a set change to a circus-style theme with dancers enacting a marionette show. And on "Subtle Invitation" she posed on a pink star-decorated grand piano in a skin-tight strapless white mini. Subtle? Maybe not.
Occasionally, Carey went deliciously over the top. "My Saving Grace", which she called "the story of my life", built to a howling climax while the video screen showed Carey being mobbed by fans, culminating in fireworks and a rainbow. (Cleveland.com) Many thanks to Mariah-Carey.org.
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