Madonna, still taking chances

The songs Madonna chose from her past were mostly exhortations and pushbacks, sometimes coupled with direct political statements

I’m not here to be popular. I’m here to be free,” Madonna declared to a packed, adoring audience on Tuesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. It was the premiere of her Madame X tour, named after the album she released in June that she has said was influenced by the music in Lisbon, her adopted home. The show follows her decades of arena spectacles by scaling the same kind of razzle-dazzle — dancers! costumes! video! choir! — for a theatre stage.

Unlike jukebox musicals or “Springsteen on Broadway”, Madame X is a concert focusing on