Spears Is Dazzling

Britney Spears brought the "Circus" tour back to Nassau Coliseum last night. And, yes, she was alone. (Really alone, actually, since the Pussycat Dolls had to cancel when Nicole Scherzinger fell ill.)

Toss all the rumors of a definite appearance by Madonna last night on the trash heap along with the reports that "American Idol" is fixed (Alexis Grace, one of the supposed Final Four, was eliminated last week) and that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony would announce their divorce last month at his Madison Square Garden concert. (Um, they didn't. Instead, the couple introduced fans to their twins Max and Emme onstage. Yeah, that's almost the same thing. Stand strong, Lopez-Anthonys.)

Nevertheless, Spears doesn't need her Material Mom pal to rev up her audience. In fact, the second crowd was far more excited to see Spears than the first crowd. Their cheering lasted all the way into the encore, unlike the first time.

Maybe they were reacting to Spears, who seemed even livelier this time around, as she ran through her array of personas -- Sexy Ringmaster, Sexy Magician's Assistant, Sexy Cop, um, you get the picture.

She even talked more, thanking the crowd three times throughout the 90-minute show, instead of just two. She also obviously sang the ballad "Everytime," daintily and effectively. Spears sang a handful of lines in a few other songs, which is far more than she did the first time. (Hint to fans: You can tell she's singing when you hear her breathing. When she's doing elaborate dance moves and there's no sound of her catching her breath between lines, she's not really singing. When she's being sawed into three pieces, she's not really singing.)

And, speaking of breathtaking, her set-closing one-two punch of "Toxic" and "Baby One More Time" really does show how dazzling Spears really can be.

Source: News Day