The Circus Starring Britney Spears - Concert Synopsis

Concert Synopsis

The show was mainly divided into four acts with different themes: The Circus, House of Fun (Anything Goes), Freakshow-Peepshow, Electro Circ and ended with the encore. It began with "Welcome to the Circus", a video introduction featuring Perez Hilton as Queen Elizabeth I. In the middle of the video, the cylinder screen started to rise, while Spears appeared on the video and shot Hilton with a crossbow, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor. As the video ended, Spears descended from the ceiling on a suspended platform, wearing the headdress, a ringmaster jacket, black shorts, high-heeled boots and carrying a whip. She started with a performance of "Circus", which featured acrobats taking the stage and spinned on giant rings in the air. The song ended with Spears taking off her ringleader jacket to reveal the Swaroski-crystal corset and running into the center of the main stage, as she was surrounded by jets of smoke. She entered a golden cage, where she performed "Piece of Me", dancing and attempting to escape from her dancers. A brief interlude followed, featuring a performance by acrobats twirling from suspended fabric, simulating a thunderstorm. before Spears went into "Radar" which featured her pole dancing on each of the stage's rings. The first intermezzo showcased her dancers doing a martial arts inspired dance to the LAZRtag remix of "Gimme More". In the next section, Ed Alonzo took the stage and Spears played her assistant in "Ooh Ooh Baby" entering a box and being sawed in half. After she came out, she entered another box in the middle of the stage and the performance ended with Alonzo dropping the curtains and showing that Spears had escaped from it, while the top of the box exploded in a shower of sparks. At the same time, Spears reappeared with four female dancers in one of the satellite stages, dancing to "Hot as Ice". The next song was the Co-Ed Remix of "Boys", which Spears performed wearing a military costume, while surrounded by her dancers, some of them riding bicycles. At the end of the song she performed a military drill with her male dancers before moving into "If U Seek Amy", which featured her pushing them with a giant pink mallet, in a similar way to Whac-a-Mole. After a brief interlude, she returned to continue the act with a Bollywood-inspired remix of "Me Against the Music". She briefly talked with the audience before she sat on a giant umbrella and was lifted into the air to perform "Everytime".

The show continued with a video interlude featuring Marilyn Manson's cover of "Sweet Dreams", showing Spears in a classically decadent party-setting, in which everyone except her was wearing masks. A distorted voice welcomed spectators to the third act and Spears appeared onstage to perform "Freakshow" and "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)". A video spoofing late-night chat lines featuring "Britney's Hotline" played, while clowns took a person from the audience and goofed around with them. Spears returned to perform "Breathe on Me", dancing on a giant picture frame, and "Touch of My Hand", in which she sported a blindfold while being lifted on the air sitting in the backs of two aerialists. In the fourth section, there was a band interlude, and Spears appeared on stage to perform "Do Somethin'", with a gun that shot sparks in her hand. This was followed by a remix of "I'm a Slave 4 U", in which she was raised on a platform as a ring of fire started below her. In the "Heartbeat" interlude, the dancers showcased their individual moves. Spears performed "Toxic" with moving jungle gyms and surrounded by green sci-fi lightning effects. The act ended with Spears and her dancers performing a remix of "...Baby One More Time". After a brief pause, the encore began with the "Break the Ice" video interlude, which included various clips of Spears's music videos. Spears returned for a performance of "Womanizer" dressed as a policewoman. Spears and the dancers bowed to each side of the arena and left with "Circus" playing in the background. Some changes were made to the setlist throughout the tour. During opening night in New Orleans, Spears was supposed to perform a cover of Duffy's "I'm Scared" after "Everytime". However, the lyric sheet went missing onstage and she started performing from below the stage, leaving two backup singers in the main stage. It was later dropped from the show. "Mannequin" was added on the second Paris date and performed after "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)", with a brief lightshow introduction. The song was performed until July 26, 2009. A cover of "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette was performed on select shows during the second North American leg, starting on September 5, 2009. In addition, "Piece of Me", "Radar", "Ooh Ooh Baby", "Do Somethin'", "I'm a Slave 4 U", "...Baby One More Time" and "Womanizer" were remixed at the beginning of the European leg.