Live review: Ricky Martin at the Nokia Theatre

Sex became an act of protest in Ricky Martin's concert Friday night at the Nokia Theatre, where every hip thrust carried the charge of this Puerto Rican pop star's latest message. "All I want is equality," he said near the end of the show. "The same for everybody."

Martin's freedom-fighter guise signaled an unlikely shift from the fun-loving hedonist he portrayed in glossy late-'90s hits such as "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "Shake Your Bon-Bon." It's a turn toward politics rooted in the personal: Last year the singer, 39, came out proudly as "a fortunate homosexual man" (as he put it in an announcement on his website), and Friday's show -- the first of two L.A. dates on his world tour -- seemed to reflect years of pent-up frustration.

"I'll be true to myself," he sang (in Spanish) in "Basta Ya," a song from his strong new album, "Música + Alma + Sexo"; elsewhere, in an interstitial video piece, one of Martin's dancers proclaimed, "I know who I am. Be yourself."

Yet if Martin's viewpoint had evolved, his choice of delivery device hadn't.

At the Nokia this former member of the Latin boy band Menudo led a group of 18 performers through a nearly two-hour production filled with costume changes and choreography. A three-story scaffold at center stage provided places for dancers to slide down poles and shirtless guitarists to stand while peeling off dramatic solos; lasers shot out over audience members' heads during the thumping, disco-inspired "Más."

Though he seemed most engaged Friday with up-tempo material from "Música + Alma + Sexo," Martin sang older songs as well, including the romantic ballad "Vuelve," before which he promised he planned to "leave [his] soul onstage tonight," and "Fuego Contra Fuego," his debut solo single. ("I wanna go back in time," he said -- not at all convincingly -- in an introduction to the latter.)

The singer grouped his handful of mainstream American hits into a single clump, revving up "Livin' la Vida Loca" to such a breakneck gallop that you wondered if he was finding out how quickly he could get through it.

An especially sex-obsessed section midway through the concert emphasized Martin's happy liberation from the strictures of those crossover days. But what began in "Frio" as an appealingly provocative tangle with a leather-clad woman wielding a whip turned jokey by the time the third dominatrix showed up. And a black-and-white video depicting Martin in naked-yoga mode blurred the line between self-affirmation and self-aggrandizement.

For the most part, though, Martin presented his fresh ideological platform with the boyish charm he's brandished effectively throughout his quarter-century career. In his encore, he followed the comment about equality with his highest-wattage smile, then asked "Doesn't it make sense?"

It did.

-- Mikael Wood

Comments

[Mary]

RICKY ROCKS!!!

As usual :)

[Norma]

I went to on Friday to see Ricky Martin in concert and it was a GREAT CONCERTTTT.....He put on an awesome showww....I love you Ricky Martin!!!

[efemeris]

sexually-obsessed is the right word for this concert. it is a copy of his previous one night only and black&white tour that had less success like this one.

and the second thing i can agree with you is that ricky martin doesn't sound convincing at all (in all his statements). just naive and uneducated people can belive what he is chanting.

[Eivet]

I went to see him Saturday night and he was AWESOME!!! I love you Ricky :)

[rosie]

Ricky Martin, you are the best! No matter what!

[Vickie Denny]

Saw the Vegas Show. It's great to see Rick as he is now that he has gone thru his life and come to where he is.
The show was the best production he has put on since he starting playing Las Vegas back in the late 90's.
Great showmanship. Love his song-writing , his all around talent as a showman, and a great human being. You make me want to be a better person!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot get enough of your voice, your music, your songs , the words, in my head.
We love you Rick!

[Mary]

Efemeris,

just a homophobic hater would lie like you.