According to “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Irving Berlin’s 80-year-old ode to showbiz, the life of a stage production goes as follows: “The opening, when your heart beats like a drum / The closing, when the customers don’t come.” Having attended both the sold-out opening night and the sold-out closing night of Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball concert tour, I can confidently report only the first half of Berlin’s observation applies to Mother Monster’s Mayhem.
Nine months ago, when Gaga kicked off the tour in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, the crowd’s energy felt electric but uncertain—what songs was she going to sing, and what would she skip? Would she build upon the ambitious vision of her 2025 Coachella headlining set, or start anew? Would it be a sonically cohesive concert, or a show that flaunted her remarkable stylistic diversity? And most importantly, how weird was the boundary-pushing pop star going to get? During the encore of that very first Mayhem Ball concert in Vegas, Gaga told the crowd about fighting some backstage nerves, particularly since she hadn’t planned on touring prior to dropping the Billboard 200-topping Mayhem album: “Before I came on stage tonight, I couldn’t even believe you were here for me,” she admitted.
On Monday (April 13) night at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Lady Gaga closed the chapter on her Mayhem era with a performance that, despite having mostly the same setlist, felt like an entirely different experience: more assured, joyous and emotionally rich, radiating with gratitude and a symbiotic love between audience and performer.
It’s strange to say a 20,000-capacity venue can feel intimate, but MSG somehow pulls that trick off, and the fact that this was a hometown show for the native New Yorker undoubtedly contributed to that familiarity. “I want to thank you for selling every ticket to this show,” she told the MSG Monsters (which included Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz) while seated at an upright piano on a runway. “I hope that you know how much you all mean to me; I hope you know how much we will all miss you. I’d like to sing this to you, New York, from my heart to yours.” Standing at the piano, she busted out surprise song “The Edge of Glory” for a crowd sing-along that genuinely sounded lovely—somehow an arena of thousands managed to find the right tonal softness to accompany Gaga’s full-bodied voice on the chorus.
There was a humble ease to her singing and stage presence over the course of the nearly three-hour event. Instead of having something to prove (as one does on the opening night of a tour), she seemed to relish the delicious sets—like the skeletal sandbox of “Perfect Celebrity,” which truly feels like an art film unto itself—and arresting choreography, such as on the operatic struggle of “Paparazzi.”
“If New York taught me anything, it’s that there’s no getting around hard work—you just have to do it,” Gaga said, reflecting on her two-decade journey from playing to skeptical crowds in Lower East Side joints to adoring fans in arenas. “If I can’t fill the Garden or a stadium [in the future], I’ll pull up to a New York bar or Central Park,” she promised.
Another setlist switch-up was the inclusion of Mayhem ballad “Blade of Grass,” which she dedicated to Michael Polansky. “I couldn’t have done this without my fiancé Michael. It’s a very emotional show for all of us to say goodbye to something that means so much to all of us.” After belting it at the piano (“I can’t wait to go home with you” she told her fiancé), Gaga put her head down, shed a few tears and talked about how strange it was to bid adieu to a show she’s done 95 times (even more when you toss in dress rehearsals, she added, mostly speaking to her cast and crew).
Following her final encore (“How Bad Do U Want Me”) of the tour, a gracious Gaga shared the stage and spotlight with her Mayhem Ball cohorts, bringing out her live rock band, the captivating cast of dancers and characters (including her alter ego Mayhem sans face covering) and crew for numerous thank yous, bows and hugs while a recording of “Always Remember Us This Way” played. Scanning the arena from the runway, Gaga seemed to be taking a series of pre-nostalgic mental pictures before closing the chapter on Mayhem by bouncing around the stage while “Marry the Night” blared over the speakers. Only not quite—after what seemed to be the final bow, Gaga and her cast ran back out for one for-real final moment of mayhem, hugging the stage and planting kisses on the Gothic Mayhem set design.
“I’ll be back,” Gaga promised—after all, there’s no business like show business. And while ups and downs are inevitable, with 18 years of iconoclastic excellence under her garter belt (including 16 Grammys, one Oscar and six Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s), it’s safe to say that Stefani Germanotta, you will always be famous.
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