Madonna (44 page)

The number ends with a chorus line of nine Dick Tracys in yellow raincoats and hats finishing up the song (including the five aforementioned dancers plus Gabriel Trupin and Kevin A. Stea). While the Tracy kick line continues, Madonna rushes offstage for her next costume change. The Tracy number obviously plugs the movie, Madonna's next record, and the millions of dollars in
Dick Tracy
merchandise flooding the marketplace that summer.

Madonna's next number lampoons her glamorous image. Together with Donna and Niki, Madonna is seen in bathrobes and hair curlers singing “Material Girl.” The girls strip off the robes and curler-covered wigs and descend the lighted staircases that sweep down at either side of the stage. From underneath the stage, three of her dancers as mermen with tails appear, and Madonna sings “Cherish,” in a re-creation of the video of the same name.

Dressed in marabou-fringed costumes, Madonna and her girls go into a very streetlike sex-talk sequence. When three male dancers in black leather jackets strut onstage, Madonna, Donna, and Niki say in unison, “You wanna fuck us?” To the audience Madonna then says, “You never really get to know a guy until you ask him to wear a rubber.” She continues her unabashed condom-sense talk: “Hey, you, don't be silly, put a rubber on your willy.”
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With that they launch into “Into the Groove.”

The black and white “Vogue” dance is excellently done, with a very Bob Fosse feeling to it. Madonna and her nine backup performers work it to death, dressed in skintight bicycle pants, tank tops, and form-fitting leggings. Madonna's black longline bra is the torpedo-titted fantasy to end them all.

“Vogue” really brings down the house every night, and after it is over, the cast takes a deep bow. This is the pre-encore ending of the show, and it is met with thunderous applause. It is on this number that it becomes really evident that you aren't watching a star and her players, you are witnessing a family, a team, a close unit. It shows Madonna off as the captain of this team, but you can see that she is also a team player.

The curtain falls, and several seconds later it rises and the spotlight hits Madonna in a black and white polka dot bellbottomed outfit. She prances around the stage singing “Holiday” and is soon joined by her singers and dancers. They playfully dance the Bus Stop and sing an extensive version of “Holiday” together.

The troupe then leaves the stage to prepare for the last number. Dressed in
Clockwork Orange—
inspired black outfits—British bowler hats and roller-derby knee and elbow guards—Madonna and her troupe return and dance with chairs, similar to Liza Minnelli's showstopper in
Cabaret
. Madonna begins the finale with Sly and the Family Stone's “Family Affair.” The acrobatic number segues into “Keep it Together.” With a strap-on headset microphone, Madonna and her family of dancers deliver a number that the best show on Broadway could contain. “The family that plays together, stays together,” she announces from the stage.
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At the time of the concert tour, it hadn't been announced that the entire troupe was going to be exposed on film. A year later, when the concert film/home movie
Truth or Dare
, was released, the world got an inside view of how closely intertwined Madonna and her troupe really were.

Along the way there were several mishaps and traumatic moments. When the tour rolled into Toronto, the local authorities received several phone calls from concerned parents and civic leaders that Madonna's act was too “obscene” for the general public. When it was suggested that she might tone down her masturbation scene for the show at Toronto's Skydome, her manager, Freddy DeMann, was among those who urged her to consider doing a tamer version of the show for the Canadian audiences. Madonna's comment to him was, “Freddy, I ain't changing my fucking act!”
²²²
And, she didn't.

The largest commotion came when Madonna took the show to Europe in July. Catholic leaders in Italy released statements calling her show “blasphemous.” When the troupe arrived in Rome on July 9, Madonna found that the second night of her concert performance there had been canceled for poor ticket sales—stemming from the Catholic protests. She held a press conference to voice her opinion, claiming that she was not promoting a way of life, that her show merely mirrored life as it happened. Addressing the television cameras in Rome in a pair of sunglasses, Madonna proclaimed, “If you are sure I'm a sinner, then let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.”
²²²

On August 5, playing before a screaming, cheering, enthusiastic audience in the beautiful French seaside resort city of Nice, Madonna concluded her Blonde Ambition tour with a huge bang. The concert was presented to American audiences via HBO's cable network. Even from across the Atlantic Ocean, Madonna managed to zing it to her critics in America. Referring to Roseanne Barr's attention-getting rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” earlier that week in the United States, which Barr had finished by grabbing her crotch, Madonna got on-stage in Nice and commented to an audience of millions, “Speaking of grabbing crotches—Roseanne Barr, baby, thumbs up! So, I say to America—get a fucking sense of humor. Spend your time worrying about… how many girls Warren Beatty has slept with. Now, that's important!”
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The telecast was a huge hit in America. When the TV ratings were announced, the special received a 21.5 rating and a 31 share of the viewing audience. Madonna's special beat out all network competition, becoming the highest rated non-sports event ever to be broadcast on the Home Box Office network.

Needless to say, not a single four-letter word nor a suggestive crotch-fondling gesture was eliminated for the cable television audience that night. In fact, there was a lot of prebroadcast publicity advising “parental discretion” before allowing children to watch Madonna and her notoriously foul mouth. The only thing that had changed in her act was her hairstyle. The “I Dream of Jeannie” topknot and pony tail had been dropped in Europe for a short curly blonde hairdo.

Madonna's devoting such a large segment of her show to the
Dick Tracy
phenomenon was its most openly self-promoting cross-pollinating part—especially since she had her seven male dancers dressed as her current beau Warren Beatty dressed as Dick Tracy.

“Disney didn't come to me and ask me to help market the movie,” she explained during the tour. “But I know I have a much bigger following than Warren does and a lot of my audience isn't even aware of who he is.”
²²⁴

With so many projects hitting the marketplace all at once, Madonna was gleaning favorable reviews right and left, regardless of what religious groups had to say. With regard to her show, the press—for her artistry and growth as a performer—was unanimously glowing. “The Blonde Ambition tour is a nifty summation of the spectacle that is Madonna… entertaining and provocative!” wrote Keith Cahoon in
Rolling Stone
. Edna Gundersen in
USA Today
called it an “extravagant collection of videos-come-to-life.” And Robert Hilburn in the
Los Angeles Times
claimed, “the singer-actress-dancer doesn't simply rest on celebrity… there is an uplifting edge to her performance… her energy and accomplishments stand as symbols of the ability of one to make the most of one's opportunities and talents.”

The next Madonna product to blast into the marketplace was the
I'm Breathless
album. This especially impressed critics who once thought of Madonna as a wonderful promoter but a spotty musician. Greg Sandow in
Entertainment Weekly
referred to
I'm Breathless
as “this naughty and triumphant album… with Madonna riding the crest of her fame, basking in the glow of an album ten times more accomplished than any record she has made before.” Anne Ayers in
USA Today
called Madonna's latest incarnation on this album that of “a bright ‘n' brassy Broadway Baby” and saluted her “lyrics that paint larger-than-life cartoon characters” amid “sophisticated pop, as compelling as the scenes unfolding in a Broadway hit.” And, proclaiming the album as one of 1990's “ten best,”
People
magazine called it a “soft, fluid, generously entertaining album.”

Amazingly, Madonna had gone neck-and-neck with Stephen Sond-heim, and they both emerged victorious. By singing his songs, Madonna had gained a sort of musical respectability that her previous songs had failed to generate, and by writing songs for her Sondheim had reached an audience who was previously unaware of the acknowledged master songwriter of Broadway.

Although the album—which sold millions of copies—only made it to Number Two in
Billboard
, it was an undisputed hit where it really counted: at the cash register.
Pulse!
, Tower Records' in-house magazine, tallied
I'm Breathless
as having hit the Number One spot the week it entered their charts. (Note: The only thing that blocked the album from Number One in
Billboard
was the summer-long reign of M.C. Hammer's
Please Hammer Don't Hurt ‘Em.)

Last but not least in this cross-pollinating promotional cavalcade of Madonna products came the film
Dick Tracy
. On one hand, it didn't do nearly as well at the box office as
Batman
had the summer before. But in terms of artistic success, cinematic brilliance, and in presenting Madonna as an actress, it was a huge success.

What impressed audiences and critics more than anything was the look of
Dick Tracy
. The art direction was nothing short of brilliant. Everything was done in colors more vibrant than those found in a box of crayons. The reds outcrimsoned them all, the yellow rivaled the ripest lemon, the green made the lushest rain forest look pale. Likewise, the performances were all over the top. Beatty as the stoic detective was more upright than even the Sunday funnies portrayed him. The villains were every bit as comically portrayed as their creator Chester Gould had drawn them. And, as Breathless Mahoney, the vamp who is torn between good and evil, Madonna was more seductively presented, more glamorously photographed, and more acid-witted than ever before. Her look exuded pure sex, and out of her mouth came one-liners that would have made Mae West proud.

On TV's “Good Morning America,” Joel Siegel claimed, “This is Madonna's best work ever—she redefines the phrase ‘blonde bombshell' for a whole new generation.” In the
New York Times
Vincent Canby wrote, “Madonna does right by the songs, two of which, ‘More' and ‘Sooner or Later' are vintage Sondheim. They, in turn, give her the kind of class she's never shown on screen before.” Mike Clark of
USA Today
claimed that “Madonna (Breathless Mahoney) steals
Dick Tracy
from lead Warren Beatty.” Meanwhile, Siskel and Ebert, the TV critics, both gave the film “two thumbs up.”

The film did have its detractors. In
Rolling Stone
, Peter Travers's review was headlined “A ‘Dick' with No Kick.” Calling the stylish film “a great big beautiful bore,” he still questioned Madonna's abilities. “It's still hard to tell if Madonna is an actress, but she is a definite presence,” he pondered, yet admitted, “Madonna exudes enough come-on carnality to singe the screen.” David Denby in
New York
magazine was less kind when he said, “The movie is only about style, and that's why Madonna gets by. She's an element in the design… she's an awful actress, but she's adequate as a masochistic, two-dimensional floozy.”

When the film opened it was an instant box office smash. It hit Number One the first week it was released, becoming the largest-grossing opening in the history of Walt Disney Pictures. The press hype had caused an avalanche of curious moviegoers to rush to their local cinema to see what all the commotion was about. Although
Dick Tracy
held first place spot at the box office the next week, it did not go on to become as big as
Batman
had the previous summer.

Regardless, Madonna was at last seen as a viable Hollywood commodity.
Dick Tracy
successfully restored Hollywood confidence in Warren Beatty and Madonna. For Madonna especially, it rescued her from three disastrous films in a row. Warren had drawn a fabulous performance from her, and she was now batting a thousand. She had a hit album, a hit movie, a sell-out concert tour, a scorching Number One single and video with “Vogue.” That summer, there was nowhere you could look or be without encountering the sight, the music, or the likeness of Madonna—and that's just the way she wanted it.

On September 4, Madonna's nonstop domination of the media hit a new peak when she performed on the seventh annual MTV Awards telecast. Six years previous, she had used the yearly telecast to establish her stardom. This time around she used the show to lampoon herself and again it worked brilliantly.

Taking a cue from the look of eighteenth-century French aristocracy and the recent success of the film
Dangerous Liaisons
, Madonna and her savvy Blonde Ambition troupe presented a fresh interpretation of “Vogue.” Wearing a towering white wig, Madonna presented an uproarious version of the song with herself as the French queen Marie Antoinette, and her troupe as her naughty courtiers. Madonna was brilliantly
in vogue
, right down to the hand-held fans, push-up boobs, cinched waist, and the sedan chair.

She had mimicked Marilyn Monroe, glorified Jean Harlow, personified Breathless Mahoney, and portrayed Marie Antoinette. Now it was time for Madonna to raise the curtain on her personal life, and raise it she did. She was about to invite her legions of fans backstage, behind the scenes, and into bed with her. In her next film she was about to portray her most outrageous role yet—that of Madonna.