Lady Gaga Enigma


Enigma is a concert residency held at the Park Theater, Park MGM in Las Vegas, United States, by American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga. The residency consists of two types of shows: Enigma, which focuses on theatricality and includes the singer's biggest hits, and Jazz and Piano, which involves songs from the Great American Songbook and stripped-down versions of Gaga's songs. The Enigma residency show opened on December 28, 2018, and the Jazz and Piano show opened on January 20, 2019. It was praised by critics, and became the highest grossing Las Vegas concert residency of 2019. With Enigma's gross, Gaga also became the fifth woman to pass the half-billion career total as per Billboard Boxscore.

Background and development

In December 2017, Lady Gaga announced her two-year Las Vegas residency at Park Theater at Park MGM, starting in December 2018. The deal is reportedly worth $100 million, includes 74 performances with a possible extension. In July 2018, Ticketmaster website had mistakenly uploaded details about a "2 Show Bundle" for the residency with tentative name as Enigma and ticket sales from the end of that month. The link was quickly removed and the residency was finally announced on August 7, 2018. It was named Lady Gaga Enigma with 27 dates, starting from December 28, 2018 to November 9, 2019. Two different shows were listed with the press release, with Enigma described as a "brand-new odyssey of pop hits built as an experience unlike any other," and Lady Gaga Jazz & Piano painted as featuring stripped down versions of her songs accompanied by tracks from the Great American Songbook. Gaga described the show as "unlike anything I've done before. It will be a celebration of all that is unique and different within us. The challenges of bravery can be overcome with creativity and courage that is grown out of adversity, love and music." Five additional dates were added to the itinerary for the Jazz & Piano shows.
The singer released a promotional poster accompanying the announcement, colored in day-glo paint. She wore a neon green tulle dress by designers Laurence & Chico, and latex gloves and swim cap from Vex Clothing. The image was photographed by Inez and Vinoodh and styled by Gaga's longtime collaborator Nicola Formichetti. Matt Moen from Paper felt that the poster hearkened back to Gaga's fashion choices during The Fame Monster era, suggesting the singer's return to avant-garde looks. He also found Las Vegas EDM and rave influences in the poster, likening it to an Electric Daisy Carnival. Formichetti also worked on creating the costumes for the concert series. On December 4, 2018, Gaga shared a video from the rehearsal on her Instagram account showing her in a bodysuit with dots on it, utilizing motion capture while the song "Aura" played in the background. She also assumed a titular new identity in one of the videos, referring herself as Enigma.
In May 2019, a mini-museum, called Haus of Gaga: Las Vegas, also opened in Park MGM. It includes forty pieces of clothing and accessories from Gaga’s personal archive, including her bodysuit from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, custom Alexander McQueen lace gown worn in the "Alejandro" music video, and her meat dress.

Concert synopsis

Enigma

The show starts with an introduction where Enigma, a motion captured character who is Gaga's alter ego, welcomes the crowd. Shortly after, the singer appears suspended to the roof of the theater and performs "Just Dance" as she plays the keytar. After joining the stage, Gaga and her dancers perform "Poker Face" and "LoveGame". Then, she meets Enigma, who explains her who she is and that she's going to show Gaga the future through a simulation. After an interlude, the singer returns on stage wearing a fluorescent suit and a manga inspired wig, and performs "Dance in the Dark" and "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich". Gaga takes her jacket off and plays an instrument which includes a keyboard and guitar strings, while singing "The Fame". After performing "Telephone" and "Applause", Gaga realizes that in the simulation, paparazzi are dangerous and want to capture her. She performs "Paparazzi" up in the air in an orb-like cage, but quickly after, the paparazzi catch her and she performs "Aura" while they torture her.
" in a latex suit
The third act opens with Gaga riding a giant mechanical robot, wearing a light-up catsuit by futuristic designer Asher Levine, while singing "Scheiße". Pyrotechnic effects accompany the performance. The song transitions to "Judas", in which Gaga performs a long electric guitar solo. Later she performs "Government Hooker" with changed lyrics to address the current US administration. After that, Gaga covers David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans" while standing in a circular keyboard console.
Following an interlude in which Enigma explains to Gaga that she must heal, "The Edge of Glory" and "Alejandro" are performed. Gaga sits down at piano at the end of the catwalk to sing "Million Reasons" and "You and I", where she is joined by her guitarists. The last act opens with "Bad Romance", performed in a cream latex suit on the catwalk while Gaga's dancers execute the choreography on the main stage. Enigma tells Gaga it is now time for her to leave, but Gaga insists to perform for her one last time. "Born This Way" follows, and after Gaga and her crew leave the stage, she comes back to sing "Shallow" on her piano as the encore.

Jazz and Piano

The singer's Jazz and Piano engagement does not involve a comprehensive narrative as the Enigma show, but it is divided into four segments, each of them preceded by costume change and black-and-white interlude films. In the videos, Gaga talks about her love of Jazz and American classics, and gives shout outs to performers who inspired her, including Billie Holiday, Etta James and Dinah Washington.

Critical response

Enigma

Chris Willman from Variety called the Enigma show a "back-to-roots move for the superstar", as it focused on her "art and artifice of being spectacular", and complimented Gaga for singing live for the entirety of the two hours. Mark Gray from People thought that the show was "highly energetic", which "lived up to the hype", and praised the theatricality of the show and the singer's connection with the audience. Andreas Hale from Billboard thought that the "set pieces were just as grandiose and over-the-top as the performances themselves" and the outfits were "outrageously unique". At the end of his review, he concluded that "it was obvious that Gaga was more than comfortable on the Vegas stage where many all-time greats cut their teeth. Simply put, she was born to do this." John Katsilometes, from the Las Vegas Review-Journal praised the singer's vocal and piano skills, saying that "she is dazzling dancing around the stage, a slim figure in a mirrored one-piece to open the night, but her heartfelt playing on the keyboards shows she can move a crowd subtly, too." Writing for Rolling Stone, Brittany Spanos highlighted the variety of the setlist and the use of props, while saying that "the best moments are the ones that feel improvised". She concluded her review by saying that Enigma "ended up becoming a show that confirms and begins her legacy".
Randy Lewis from the Los Angeles Times thought that Gaga was "in full pop star mode", and while he appreciated the "gigantic" set pieces and the inclusion of the singer's biggest hits, he found the show "disjointed", with "little sense of narrative flow". He also added that the choreography "offers little in the way of physical expression or amplification of her songs’ lyrics or music", although he noted that it showcased "plenty of wild, kinetic energy". Entertainment Weekly journalist Marc Snetiker called the show "on the whole, rather nutty, but Enigma the show is a damn good time, and it’s admirable in its attempts to elevate a greatest-hits gathering into something striving for more, something that perhaps even galvanized an artist in the peak of her career to take a Vegas residency in the first place."

Jazz and Piano

Variety magazine journalist Chris Willman thought that the Jazz & Piano arrangement was even better than the singer's other show, calling it "the best shot we’re going to get at time travel" as "this show recalls peak Vegas", and complimented the singer"s "real emotion" showcased throughout this performance. Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times also compared it to Enigma, saying that "for all their differences in style and repertoire, both shows feel indelibly Gaga, linked by the unifying force of her wacky personality and her raw vocal talent." He further noticed, that "for her, the two Vegas performances aren’t opposed but complementary — part of the same determination to use artifice to say something real."

Commercial reception

Pre-sale for the show started from August 8, 2018, for Gaga's fan club members, followed by Citi bank credit card holders on the next day, getting an early chance at acquiring the tickets. There was also a pre-sale for MGM members as well as Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers which ran from August 11–12. The next day tickets for the show would be available to the general public, including the general bookings and VIP packages for meet-and-greet. IQ magazine reported that the tickets were outselling nearest competitors, those of residencies by artists like Celine Dion and Britney Spears. The sales are also affected by the higher price range of the tickets in the secondary markets.
In February 2019, the first set of boxscores were reported by Billboard. Gaga earned $16 million from the 11 reported sold out dates, which when divided monthwise, resulted in grosses of $4.3 million in December 2018, $8.7 million in January 2019 and $2.9 million in February. Individual show grosses ranged from $1.41–$1.48 million, with the total audience rounding out at 59,162 tickets. According to the magazine's Eric Frankenberg, the total gross was "an electrifying opening pace for Gaga's Vegas residency", since the singer "outperformed" the opening grosses of all previous residencies by other artists—including Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, the Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain and Gwen Stefani. With the gross, Gaga also became the fifth woman to pass the half-billion career total as per Billboard Boxscore. In 2019, the residency grossed $53,868,719 million for an average of $1,584,374 per concert, and sold 185,019 tickets for an average of 5,442 per concert. The average ticket price was $291.15.

Set lists

Enigma

This set list is a representation of the December 28, 2018, concert. It is not intended to represent every show.
  1. "Just Dance"
  2. "Poker Face"
  3. "LoveGame"
  4. "Dance in the Dark"
  5. "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich"
  6. "The Fame"
  7. "Telephone"
  8. "Applause"
  9. "Paparazzi"
  10. "Aura"
  11. "Scheiße"
  12. "Judas"
  13. "Government Hooker"
  14. "I'm Afraid of Americans"
  15. "The Edge of Glory"
  16. "Alejandro"
  17. "Million Reasons"
  18. "You and I"
  19. "Bad Romance"
  20. "Born This Way"
;Encore
  2. "Shallow"

    Jazz and Piano

This set list is a representation of the January 20, 2019, concert. It is not intended to represent every show.
  1. "Luck Be a Lady"
  2. "Anything Goes"
  3. "Call Me Irresponsible"
  4. "Orange Colored Sky"
  5. "Poker Face"
  6. "The Lady Is a Tramp"
  7. "Cheek to Cheek"
  8. "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby"
  9. "Someone to Watch Over Me"
  10. "Born This Way"
  11. "Bang Bang "
  12. "Coquette"
  13. "What a Diff'rence a Day Made"
  14. "Paparazzi"
  15. "La Vie en rose"
  16. "Just a Gigolo"
  17. "Lush Life"
  18. "Bad Romance"
  19. "Fly Me to the Moon"
;Encore
  2. "New York, New York"

    Shows

Cancelled dates