What was supposed to be an evening featuring the best of two of pop music's most beloved superstars ended up feeling like more filler than thriller from the opener. At the Air Canada Centre Thursday, Lionel Richie was once, twice, three times the performer known as Mariah Carey.
Maybe it was the contrasting styles of showmanship, or perhaps it was the closing act's natural exuberance, but what was supposed to be an evening featuring the best of two of pop music's most beloved superstars - with more than 300 million in record sales between them - ended up feeling like more filler than thriller from the opener.
Admittedly, there is a certain predictability from the Long Island-born Carey in terms of "Divatude", and in that aspect, she didn't disappoint: her entire one-hour set was a Vegas tease that included the roll-out of the singer and songwriter perched on a big white throne for the kick-off number "Heat" and a trio of glittery gown costume changes.
There was also a blink-if-you-miss-it dance number which consisted of Carey being lifted and lightly twirled by her rumoured new beau Bryan Tanaka, whetting the appetite for what surely would be a night of intermittent choreography... or so one might think.
But Carey, who seemed to have difficulty walking naturally on her high-heeled shoes, stuck to do what she does best: the singing. And after lip-synching accusations and a particularly disastrous New Year's Eve showing on live TV, it seems that she can put some of those ghosts to rest: Carey's vocals on Thursday night were definitely live, not Memorex.
But to suggest she taxed herself, with the exception of her take of the buoyant "We Belong Together", would be pushing it. Even the famous five-octave range was rarely employed or lost in the din of the arena acoustics.
As for the hits - after a slow-windup of "Heat", "I'm That Chick" and a cover of Diana Ross' "Love Hangover", Carey and her eight-piece band delivered on that front with such chart-toppers her debut single "Vision Of Love", "One Sweet Day", "Hero" and "Always Be My Baby", in which she trotted out her two kids and spent five minutes trying to coax a few words out of them to charm the audience.
Throw in an extended DJ spot during a costume transition and a good 10 of those 60 precious minutes for Mariah fans were lost in the cosmos. Carey's refusal to use the large video screens for any close-ups also had an adverse effect: there just seemed to be no real personal connection between her and the crowd of an estimated 14,000, no spark. It was disappointing.
On the other hand, the man who will be front-and-centre at the upcoming Kennedy Center honours for lifetime achievement, couldn't do enough to engage his fans. Perhaps with age and maturity there comes a certain sense of reckless abandon, but Richie, comfortable with his accomplishments and his stature, pulled out all the stops for his surprisingly boisterous 100-minute set.
He even out-spectacled Mariah with a blinding and glitzy searchlight entrance, his unaccompanied grand piano rising from below the stage scaffold to enable him to kick things off with his Commodores ballad "Easy".
Perhaps it should be no surprise that Richie has evolved leaps and bounds from the controlled and contrived performer that these eyes last witnessed during his Dancing On A Ceiling tour in the mid-'80s, and although much of the stage patter the Alabama native said at the ACC might be repeated on a nightly basis, he was personable enough to make you believe you were hearing it for the first time.
This was a Lionel Richie who joked with the crowd, shone the spotlight on a few individuals in the said crowd, made sure there were several moments where everyone either sang along or carried the tune for him and went to great lengths to make sure everyone had a good time.
And then there was the 40-years-plus of harmonious funk, R&B and pop dating back to his Commodore days, the early years highlighted by a party-down medley of "Brick House" and the Ohio Players' "Fire" that had everyone up and boogieing.
Because he's such a master balladeer - the slow songs like "Truly", "Three Times A Lady" ("You either got engaged, married or into a whole lot of trouble with this song," he quipped), "Hello" and "Say You, Say Me" were well-placed in this well-paced show - one tends to forget that he also has a lot of quicker-tempo tunes in his repertoire: "You Are", "All Night Long", "Dancing On The Ceiling" and "Penny Lover" were all trotted out - with intricately-performed support from his five-piece band - to the audience's delight.
When he capped off his pre-encore set with "We Are The World" and united the audience in song, Richie had cemented his stature as a must-see performer to the point where Mariah Carey could have learned a lesson or two about presentation.
However, there was one egregious omission by both parties that should have been a no-brainer: both Richie, as the composer of the song, and Carey, who had a hit with it with the late Luther Vandross, could - and should - have teamed together for a duet of "Endless Love".
Richie's version with Diana Ross topped the charts for nine weeks and was his only hit that wasn't played Thursday night. Had Lionel and Mariah gotten together for that singular number, the magic would have been palpable and created a special memory for their collective patrons.
(Toronta Star)
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