I’ve never seen either show, not yet anyway, and my only experience with the Colosseum thus far was in mid-May 2010. We arrived at Caesars Palace just at the end of Cher’s show, when she had a residency there, and took the elevator from the parking garage to the casino floor. The elevator doors opened to reveal a sea of members of the Cher Army, as I called it, waiting for the elevator so they could go back down to the parking garage, the show just having ended. The show always has to end at a certain time. It can’t go on and on. There is a time for it to begin and a time for it to end. Everything in between is undoubtedly planned to the minute.
I will eventually see Shania Twain in concert. I must! But I’ll bet neither she nor Celine Dion nor Elton John ever had a night like Diana Ross had in New York’s Central Park on July 21, 1983, in front of 400,000, yes, 400,000 fans, starting with a clear sky, and cutting the concert short after an electrical storm with sheeting rain became too much to handle. She promised the audience that she would be back the next day to do the concert over again, and she kept that promise. The entire stunning experience was recorded and broadcast worldwide via satellite, and it’s a battle royale to see: Lively, Caring Diva vs. Nature. Nature won that first round, but the Diva fought valiantly and defiantly, so admirably, never wanting to disappoint her fans. And they were with her all the way.
Diana Ross: Live in Central Park brings back that rained-out concert for the first time in 30 years, another terrific release from Shout! Factory, which has well proven itself to be important gatekeepers of pop culture history, strengthening that standing more and more with each new release. This DVD is an historical document, and not just from the setlist alone, which you must take a look at. You likely know these songs, but read through them again. All this is why Diana Ross remains popular:
I’m Coming Out
Home
Family
It’s My House
Let’s Go Up
Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand)
Supremes Medley: Reflections/Baby Love/Stop! In The Name of Love/Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart
God Bless the Child
Mirror, Mirror
Maniac
You Can’t Hurry Love
Upside Down
So Close
Why Do Fools Fall In Love
Ribbon In The Sky
Beat It
Muscles
Endless Love
Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) (Reviewer note: Besides wanting to see how music history was made, this is my favorite Diana Ross song, and was the major reason I took this)
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
All For One
Across the weather-beaten concert and the full concert performed the very next day, that voice is powerful both times. More than that, Ross is a consummate performer not only in stage design by Tony Walton and the outfits she wears in both concerts, but in appreciating her audience. Many times, during that historic concert, she tells them that she’ll perform as long as she’s able, but since there are children in the audience, if they feel it necessary to leave, do so safely. She wants to give them everything she has and she does. In the second concert, during Upside Down, she asks them to sing along with her, then drops out and lets the audience take over. It’s wonderful to see a singer who knows that the audiences are why she’s there. She loves them and oh do they love her with united admiration and respect that I don’t think can be found in any other concert today. Just listen to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” toward the end of the second concert, and you will see that proof. For me, “Theme from Mahogany” is too short, but I accept it because of all the awe-inspiring power she offers in these concerts. I don’t think any other performer today would do what she does in the face of rain and thunder and lightning. What also helps is director Steve Binder, who explains what happened in an audio commentary that must be heard.
Binder’s commentary, unfortunately just for the 48-minute aborted concert, is one of the greatest in the history of the DVD format. Current directors and future directors should learn from this how to record a commentary. Binder takes note of the moments playing and instead of recounting them as they’re happening, repeating what we’re watching, he gives insight into what happened in those moments. For example, at one point in the technical truck, an executive came up behind him and thought they should cut to an hour’s worth of Ross’s music videos (prepared for the possibility of bad weather, to have something to show via satellite in case the concert was cut short), but Binder told him that they would follow Ross for as long as she was on stage. They had a script for the show, shots to make, all written in pencil by Binder’s hand, but as the storm got worse, Binder told his associate director Dennis Rosenblatt (whose name sounded familiar, and I remembered that he directed The Man Show, as well as the three latest Rockin’ Eve ABC specials, according to the Internet Movie Database) to close the book. They would improvise.
The second concert features a recap of what happened the previous day, news reporters amazed at what had happened, and one commentator heard saying that “Ross has the stuff of which entertainment legends are made.” That’s the truth. It’s the love between Ross and the audience that makes this legendary. Her voice goes far, but that love goes farther. It may have been an electrical storm, but I like to think that the audience had a hand in that, contributing their own electricity.
Of all the DVD reviews I’ve written for Movie Gazette Online, I’ve donated all those DVDs to Goodwill. I had no reason to keep them, and El Bulli: Cooking in Progress only remains because my sister, a fast-budding chef, hasn’t seen it yet.
I will keep Diana Ross: Live in Central Park for my collection. It’s an incredible reason for the continued existence of DVDs, entertainingly historical.
