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Dallas Morning News Review: 03/: 3/3/00, Dallas, TX
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Date: Mar 04, 2000 Wonder Boys Production values soar during Backstreet show 03/04/2000 By Teresa Gubbins / The Dallas Morning News Pop music has officially become the stuff of Broadway, as proved stunningly by the Backstreet Boys on Friday at Reunion Arena during the first of two sold-out shows. It used to be that the most insulting thing you could say about an act was that its members lip-synced their songs. But like many of their teen-pop comrades, the Backstreet gang rendered the issue moot by simply out-dancing and out-performing it altogether. The show was as sophisticated and theatrical as it comes, paced more like a Broadway show than a concert. There were at least five costume changes, and a series of breathtaking dance numbers that employed unusual props such as folding chairs. Somewhere in the middle of it all were a couple of harmony-intensive voice-only songs to prove that the Boys can and sometimes really do sing. As a Broadway production, it fell short on content, with no story line and not even much meat to the lyrics. The focal points were the dance numbers and close-ups of the band's faces, impressively displayed on video screens over the stage. Before the Boys emerged, the thousands of girls and their parents in the audience sat happily in the arena, their screams coming in waves, like those you hear when a roller coaster makes its rounds. Thrilled to be part of the event, they eagerly participated in endless cycles of "the wave." Every time a technician onstage moved, they screamed. Every time the video screens flickered, they screamed. Four girls holding hands skipped across the main floor, all wearing identical Backstreet Boys T-shirts. For Mallory Jones, 9, the concert was a birthday present from her mother, Sheila Bushee, 33. The twosome drove up from Clifton, Texas, near Waco, reprising a similar trip they made last year for 'N Sync. Emily Johnson and Stephen Osborne, both 20, of College Station, Texas, were jubilant that her father was able to get them tickets. "We're the only college students here tonight!" Ms. Johnson said. The show opened with great drama. As the notes to the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today" tolled, the quintet emerged from a box at one end of the stage with a puff of smoke. Suspended by wires, with boogie boards attached to their feet, they slowly, precariously "flew" through the air. Landing onstage, they engaged in a prolonged "changing of the guard" - lots of salutes and whatnot - with the theme from Star Wars playing in the background. The stage was in-the-round, pentagonally shaped, its icy-blue color scheme reflecting the design of the Boys' current CD, Millennium - the one that's sold 11 million copies. Wearing Batman-style chest pieces, backed by five pairs of dancers and six musicians, they began with "Larger Than Life," in which all skipped joyously around the stage, as if they were on a huge human merry-go-round. On "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" the production was fabulous: The entire team wore white, and everyone danced with an uninhibited, vivacious bounce that was breathtaking to watch. The best part: The dancers truly looked like they were having fun. As long as you don't think of them as musicians, the Backstreet Boys are actually quite likable. And as showmen, they were spectacular, raising the level of what constitutes a pop music event.
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