Concert review | At the Key, Beyoncé put a style on it

Concert Review |

"I'm gonna take y'all through a lot of different emotions tonight, but I hope you're ready to dance," promised Beyoncé at the start of her KeyArena show Wednesday night.

The R&B diva made good on her first vow for sure. In the two-hour show, she raced through 25 songs in just about every genre, sampling moments from her varied career and trying on new musical personas with abandon.

She played the big singles ("Crazy in Love," "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," "Irreplaceable"), the soft ballads ("Ave Maria," "Broken Hearted Girl"), and even did a medley of hits from Destiny's Child — her now-defunct girl group. There was ska, reggae, girlish pop, jazz, rap, soul, gospel, Middle Eastern, rock and body-thumping club remixes.

It makes sense for Beyoncé to work the sampler-plate angle. Starting with Destiny's Child and on through her three solo albums, Beyoncé has molded and shifted her sound, landing now with her latest album "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" on the soft pop/rock side of the R&B fence. She's also a bit of a ham who can imbue her performances with whatever character fits: sexpot, woman scorned, strutting hip-hop Miss Thang, poised matriarch.

The only thing is, while she can wrap her voice and body around just about any style, she doesn't really have her own signature, at least musically. And while all the variety kept the concert interesting, it came off a little unfocused.

I could have done with more of what she does best: the full-throttle, raw emotion of a song like "Listen" from "Dreamgirls" (a song from the Beyoncé-starring film adaptation of the Broadway musical) or a surprisingly fantastic cover of Alanis Morrisette's "You Outta Know."

But for a show that's as much about style as music, you gotta hand it to Beyoncé. The evening played out like a hip-hop Cirque du Soleil — sequins galore, dramatic dance numbers, and Beyoncé at one point soaring through the audience suspended on cables. And while she said she uses all female musicians for empowerment's sake, the sassed-up 13-piece also leant some serious je ne sais quois, in their skintight body suits, dancing in rhythm.

During Beyoncé's costume changes, said ladies of the band got a chance to show off. We got a funky bass jam, a dynamite classical piano sample, and a song from the fantastic backup singers, a trio called The Mamas. And speaking of costumes, Beyoncé donned a series of curve-hugging leotards and mile-high stilettos, revealing every inch of her legs as she kicked, spun and dipped. The lady's got moves.

As far as her promise to get the rest of us moving ... the three-quarters-full KeyArena seemed happier just watching Beyoncé do her thing rather than busting out with some "Single Ladies" choreography of their own. No matter — Beyoncé had enough strut for the whole place.

Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com