Gaga Chromatic Ballnow streaming on Max, features Lady Gaga in a 2022 concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, during the pandemic-delayed tour in support of her 2020 album. chromatic. A lot has happened since 2022, and these days Gaga is preparing for her star-making role as Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips’ film. Joker: Folie à Deux. But in this inspiring and simply monumental conceptual concert film, which she produced, directed and edited, Lady Gaga presents an immersive document of her remarkable flair for live performance, a classic that never goes out of style. In chromatic ballGaga is part pop star, part rock star, part advocate and part futuristic fashionista, with Acts instead of Ages. Or as she offers during an early reminder of the themes that made her great in the first place: “Walk, walk, fashion baby, work, move, that crazy bitch…â€
CHROMATIC GAGA BALL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: Chromatica Ball was Gaga’s seventh major tour. But her magnitude only grew in the wake of the pandemic, when the planned schedule of stadium shows increased from six to 20. During the lockdown, her fans, those legions of little monsters, had to listen to enormous chromatic singles like “Stupid Love,” “Rain on Me,” and “Free Woman” while locked up. So why not give them the gift of enormity and spectacle? And then the lights go out at Dodger Stadium, and Lady Gaga appears as a monolithic figure straight out of Brutalist propaganda, with a fleet of dancers similarly dressed in gray monochrome and an austere stage with cubicles for a drummer and a musician whose equipment includes a circular keyboard. A pro, she opens the 20-plus song show with “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” before establishing her four-act format and a grand finale.
The production design of Chromatica Ball is deliberate, deliberately breaking the traditional space of a live concert and accompanied by video interludes with elaborate costumes and own images, an aspect accentuated in Gaga Chromatic Ball with adjustments to the film’s material and insightful edits. But the visual style on display, along with the frequent costume changes, is combined with a series of wide, ecstatic shots of the crowd. Those more traditional modes of a concert film are perfectly necessary, because fan reaction is what the arena-ready chorus of something like “Just Dance” is built for.
For “Alice,” Gaga performs strapped to a cement stretcher. For the Act II standout “911,” she appears in a black peaked cap alongside fields of deep red on the towering video screens that flank her. And for “Free Woman,” she sings directly to the Monsters who cheer her along the stage. No matter how big the Chromatica Ball show can get, she never eclipses Lady Gaga. (Well, except when her dancers cleverly mask costume changes on stage.) She is always in the center, always like Gaga, the singer and performer, and she is absolutely magnetic. There are many reasons why she has been a star for almost two decades. But it is a fact that she can make a stadium with more than 55,000 spectators seem like an intimate and direct experience, and transmit that sensation through the small screen with Gaga Chromatic Ball. And at the end of the concert, she is dressed in sequins and vinyl, her slicked-back blonde hair now sweaty and askew, flanked by two heavy metal guitarists and surrounded by flames. It’s a rock star moment for an artist who is a master at being both a chameleon and a captivating performer.
What movies will it remind you of? The raw and fascinating documentary of 2017 Gaga: five foot two It’s still streaming on Netflix and worth watching or re-watching. And while that doctor and the controversy surrounding an old interview stillin 2024, continues to fuel rumors of acrimony between Gaga and Madonna, conceptual changes in chromatic ball are equal in scale to those of Mrs.the 2021 concert film that Madonna filmed in Lisbon, Portugal.
Performance worth seeing: It has to be the tree piano. With its tangle of 3D sculpted roots and the addition of ventilation pipes and strange bits of metal, the instrument that dominates the smaller stage separate from the main event often seems to merge with Lady Gaga as she sits on her bench, which in A in turn resembles human bones. The effect only intensifies once Gaga reveals another costume change, from shiny gold to a leotard with tentacles attached. It’s an effect that evokes concepts of HR Giger-style body horror, and it’s fucking cool.
Memorable dialogue: chromatic ball is peppered with the usual rock star exhortations. (“Raise your hands! Now shout!”) But Lady Gaga doesn’t say much until she takes to a separate, smaller stage for a stirring performance of “Born This Way.” Throughout most of the song on solo piano, Gaga frequently chimes in with inspiring messages in support of LGBTQ+ people. —Did you hear what I said? I said ‘perfect!’ Perfect with ‘P!’ capital letter. It’s an emotional and celebratory centerpiece of the set, but she’s not finished. “Wait. Everyone raise your heads real quick. I don’t always feel perfect. Most of the time I don’t. Most of the time I feel like something is wrong. But when that happens, deep down I say it to myself or someone else,” and she screams the lines in unison with a full-throated chorus of 52,344 Little Monsters. “I’M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY/GOD DOESN’T MAKE MISTAKES/I’M ON THE RIGHT PATH BABY/I WAS BORN LIKE THIS…”
Sex and skin: Sex and skin? More like Clothes and Concepts. There are at least five complete costume changes in chromatic ball, each one integrating into the visual aesthetics of the act in which it appears. Gaga as gesticulating political sculpture. Gaga with a blood red cape that echoes her meat dress from 2010. Gaga ditched that in favor of cool tones and a red hoodie with gigot sleeves. Gaga in a black foreman outfit with chest straps, conical shoulder accessories, and a peaked cap. Gaga in a celestial headdress that shines gold. In chromatic, feel free to choose your Gaga. She will give you options.
Our opinion: Sometimes when the career migration begins for top talent, you wonder if you can’t just go back. Of course, Lady Gaga never stopped proving her worth. She transitioned to film, made a call A star has been born, and earned a Best Actress nomination for it. It is not a big thing! But one of the effects of Gaga Chromatic Ball is to refresh our understanding of how great she is at all things singing, songwriting and performing. It is based on her penchant for reinvention; in fact, she reinvents herself in part for each of the show’s specific acts. But this is a film that captures a concert, and the concert features an artist who doesn’t need artifice to be amazing. Inpidual choruses and stadium-sized moments are key to the production. But when Gaga heads to the side stage for a set she leads, often alone at that tree piano, she has the ability to miniaturize the room. She feels like she’s singing the star is born ballads “Shallow” and “Always Remember Us This Way” for one person at a time, or inspiring the inpidual who needed it most with a moving rendition of the hymn “Born This Way.” “The Edge of Glory,” playing the piano with one hand while pointing with the other, we are all waiting for that moment of truth. Lady Gaga’s multidisciplinary career is fantastic. She is always hungry, so let her cook. But in chromatic ballshe shares every last ingredient that made her a master.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Gaga Chromatic Ball is an exciting, maximalist concert film that energizes its spectacle through the sheer force of Lady Gaga as a live performer. Thematic sets, creative film editing touches, and an ambitious pace of costume changes support just how great Gaga is as a singer and protagonist of her entire aesthetic.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
