Lionel Richie thrills, Mariah Carey disappoints
At the ACC Thursday, Lionel Richie was once, twice, three times the performer Mariah Carey was.
Maybe it was the contrasting styles of showmanship or the closing act’s natural exuberance, but what was supposed to be an evening featuring two of pop music’s most beloved superstars ended up feeling like more filler than thriller from the opener.
Admittedly, there is a certain predictability from the Long Islandborn Carey in terms of “Divatude” and, in that aspect, she didn’t disappoint: her one-hour set was a Vegas tease that included the rollout of the singer perched on a big white throne for the kickoff and a trio of glittery gown changes.
There was also a blink-and-you-miss-it dance number that 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 highheeled shoes, stuck to 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 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 on 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’s “Love Hangover,” Carey and her eight-piece band delivered chart-toppers such as her debut single “Vision of Love,” “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.
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 estimated crowd of 14,000.
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 sense of reckless abandon, but Richie pulled out all the stops for his surprisingly boisterous 100-minute set.
He even out-spectacled Carey with a blinding and glitzy searchlight entrance, his grand piano rising from below the stage scaffolding to enable him to kick things off with “Easy.”
Richie has evolved leaps and bounds from the controlled and contrived performer these eyes last witnessed in the mid-’80s.
This was a Lionel Richie who went to great lengths to make sure everyone had a good time.
And then there were the 40 yearsplus 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,” “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 to the audience’s delight.
When he capped 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 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, should have teamed on a duet of “Endless Love.”