Madonna starts Melbourne concert more than four hours late
By all accounts, Madonna's first attempt at her new "Tears of a Clown" show was worth the wait -- even if that wait was more than four hours long.
Madonna took a break from the Australian leg of her "Rebel Heart" tour to perform a new, more intimate style of show called "Tears of a Clown" at Melbourne's Forum Theater Thursday night -- though the show ended up being Friday morning.
CBS News spoke with an attendee who confirmed that while the show was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m., management was already warning those in line Thursday afternoon that it would start late. The crowd was not let into the venue until nearly 11:00 p.m., and Madonna didn't take the stage until 12:50 a.m., with the concert ending just before 3:00 a.m.
The show itself, which was streamed live on Periscope, featured an old-fashioned carnival theme, with Madonna dressed as a clown in a top hat. She arrived riding a small tricycle, circling the stage a number of times before comically falling off near the front.
Madonna apologized for the delay and for any mistakes that she and her band made during the gig, as it was a "work in progress." She also told the crowd that she was not making any money on the tour because of all the late fees in each city.
Later in the show, she surprised the audience with candid references to her personal life past and present. She dedicated her song "Intervention" to son Rocco, with whom she has been having a very public feud.
She also mentioned ex-husband Sean Penn at one point, recounting a story about how when he was in prison and she would visit him, he was placed near a serial killer who always had a line of groupies waiting to see him, while no one but Madonna was waiting to see Penn -- which was just fine as far as Madonna was concerned.
Her antics during the show also involved testing out stand-up comedy routines between songs, giving two audience members each $100 and sporting a jewel-encrusted grill that made her difficult to understand. She performed many lesser-known tracks and acoustic versions of hits, as well as a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars."