Beyoncé looks to be human despite her perfection and utter professionalism. On Tuesday she began her first of two shows at Citi Field over an hour late, and robots are on time, right? She also appeared to sweat during the two-hour concert.
This was reassuring because Beyoncé’s post-“Lemonade” Formation Tour is incredibly polished. Visually this is as good as it gets, starting with a gigantic rotating multi-story cube on which live closeups are projected, along with arty videos and cute footage of the star as a kid.
Then there’s the tight choreography, in which Queen Bey leads a posse of stern amazons. And of course there are costume changes, enough wind machines to power Queens, confetti, huge plumes of fire and a pool filled with ankle-deep water to splash in.
You get your money’s worth: all that and about 30 songs, most of them hits. The bulk came from Beyoncé’s last three albums, including “Lemonade,” but she went all the way back to “Survivor,” and delivered a strong cover of Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” — she pointed out it was Prince’s birthday, but the song was included at previous stops on the tour.
This is typical: The only thing missing in the show was any sense of fun, spontaneity or actual musical danger — a highlight was starting “Crazy in Love” like a grinding Nine Inch Nails track.
Bey would smile, but it felt more like a benevolent ruler making the rounds delivering goods to her willing subjects. Can you imagine if she threw out the script one day?