Lady Gaga doesn't disappoint as Mayhem Ball arrives in Toronto for first of 3 shows

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Lady Gaga
Scotiabank Arena
Wednesday night
RATING: *** (3 out of four)

Lady Gaga really brought the mayhem to Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night for the first of three shows.

Make that the Mayhem Ball, which the 39-year-old singer is currently touring with in support of her 2025 album, Mayhem.

Mother Monster — Gaga calls fans her “little monsters” — certainly brought some major theatrics.

There was the stage made to look like an opera house, a large, sand-filled coffin, an oversized human skull, a long catwalk down the middle of the floor, a gondola, the use of fire bursts and fireworks, many elaborate costume changes, and light bracelets for audience members to wear that turned different colours depending upon the song.

Split into five acts, the two-hour-plus concert began with Gaga emerging out of a large curtained float to sing Bloody Mary aided by her talented troupe of dancers and a band, the latter mostly hidden inside the opera house except during certain moments of the show.

“Put your paws up, Toronto!” was a familiar refrain from Gaga, who reminded the Toronto audience we were the first to embrace her pop music two decades ago.

“I’ve never forgotten that,” she said later in the night. “That was 20 years ago? Can you believe that?”

Gaga then made the audience pinky promise to come back 20 years from now.

For the most part, the singer looked and sounded incredible, even if we sometimes had to wait a little bit longer than usual for her to re-emerge after a costume change while either her dancers or band filled in the blanks.

Some pacing issues aside, when Gaga was on stage she was a marvel to behold with song highlights alternating between Mayhem songs and older favourites.

Newer tunes Garden Of Eden, The Beast, Killah — featuring Gaga emerging from inside the large human skull, Zombieboy — that saw Gaga walking up a staircase to the top of the skull, and LoveDrug that saw her walking back down those stairs, and Shadow of A Man all stood out.

I also liked Perfect Celebrity, even if it did feature Gaga lying down in an oversized coffin filled with sand making it hard to really see her.

Older hits like Poker Face, Paparazzi — featuring Gaga on silver crutches in a dramatic white veil with an extra long train walking slowly down the catwalk, Alejandro, Applause, Just Dance, Born This Way (which she dedicated to the queer community), and Bad Romance have also aged really well.

But it was her glorious vocal run on Shallow (from the A Star is Born remake with Bradley Cooper), featuring Gaga on a gondola that slowly moved along the catwalk, that made for some serious goosebumps.

And after earlier playing guitar a few times, Gaga finally brought out the piano at the end of the catwalk for Die With a Smile (her duet with Bruno Mars) and Marry The Night before retreating back to the stage for Bad Romance, which featured her getting revived by her dancers while on a white gurney.

Wednesday night’s concert was the first of three shows in Toronto, with the other two scheduled for Thursday and Saturday nights.

Toronto was previously the only Canadian dates of the Mayhem Ball, produced by Gaga and her fiance Michael Polansky, but two Montreal shows were added next year on April 2-3 at the Bell Centre.

SET LIST:

Bloody Mary

Abracadabra

Judas

Aura

Scheiße

Garden of Eden

Poker Face

Perfect Celebrity

Disease

Paparazzi

LoveGame

Alejandro

The Beast

Killah

Zombieboy

LoveDrug

Applause

Just Dance

Shadow of a Man

Kill for Love

Summerboy

Born This Way

Million Reasons

Shallow

Die With a Smile

Marry the Night

Vanish Into You

Bad Romance

Encore:

How Bad Do U Want Me

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