The Vaudeville of Madonna

There are two reasons for choosing to reflect upon Madonna (Madonna Ciccone, b. 1958) on this particular birthday. 2023 puts us at the 40th anniversary of her entry onto the pop charts and hence into mainstream consciousness. AND her recent alarming appearance at the Grammys this year (revealing serious surgical alteration of her facial features), which set tongues wagging, which is what she has always done best.

When Madonna burst on the scene in 1983 I was perplexed and irritated by all the hoopla. I did not find either the song or the MTV video of “Like a Virgin” particularly provocative or interesting or even good. As with Sinead O’Connor’s ripping of the Pope photo on SNL later in the decade (so fresh in our minds from her sad recent passing), I wondered “What’s the big deal? Why the stink? Is the entire CULTURE unaware of the thousands of far more daring transgressions being committed daily by punk and metal bands? What the hell? Have you all been sleeping in caves? Are you all Rip Van Winkle?” Furthermore, only 25% of America is Catholic, with some smaller number than that being what you might call devout or conservative. So, like, why is this a thing that anybody is talking about? Why is the media flogging it? The whole thing seemed manufactured and calculated and inorganic.

Well, there you go. I spoke approvingly of her in my book No Applause with respect to that very same quality, describing her as an heir apparent to all those pushy vaudeville dames who elbowed their way to the top, like Nora Bayes, and Sophie Tucker, and Eva Tanguay, and Mae West and Fanny Brice. And that’s the crux of it (ha! I said “crux”! A little crucifix humor, that is!) For, with her limited vocal range, ordinary looks, and self-conscious histrionic skills, it was BRAINS and IRON WILL that took her to the top.

I first realized I admired this aspect of her career about a decade after she first broke, when she actually DID push the envelope on transgression, during the phase that included the Erotica LP (1992), the Sex book (1992), the kinky thriller Body of Evidence (1993), the S/M themed Girlie Show tour (1993), and stunts like flinging her panties at David Letterman (1994) on his show. “Okay, NOW she’s doing something interesting,” I thought, though even at the point I felt that it was calculated and not enough. But at least it was something. (This, btw, was around the same time the New Burlesque movement was coming into being. She clearly had her finger on the [dirty joke redacted]). But I’m a straight male, so what do I know? What she puts out seems to speak primarily to women and gay men.

At around the same time, Camille Paglia, whom I admired at the time, wrote and spoke approvingly of her, and I read Christopher Anderson’s unauthorized 1991 biography of her, and learned of her early career, which has to command serious respect from a show biz lover. In her early years on the Lower East Side, she literally starved, and worked unbelievably hard. She originally trained to be a dancer, studied with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. This led to work as a back-up singer/dancer. Then she was with some punk/New Wave bands. (She plays several instruments). THEN she started making dance music for the club scene, got involved with DJ/producer Jellybean Benitez, who devised her hybrid techno/Latin sound, and this is what got her the following that landed record deals.

I have to say I genuinely like just about all of her singles of the ’80s and ’90s, some more than others. Yet I will also say, that though catchy, almost all of them, even ballads like “Papa Don’t Preach” have a cold quality that prevent me from becoming emotionally invested. And I’m genuinely not made of stone. I was very moved by ‘Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” (1985), for example, or Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” (1984) to cite just a couple of rival singles from the era. But I don’t think Madonna operates from her heart, as a general rule, but with her head. Thus, the photo at the top, from the “Material Girl” video, which I enjoyed very much at the time, and was a brilliant expression of the Reagan era zeitgeist — as well as her own impulses. Like the old time vaudeville stars, she thinks, she strategizes about what moves she should next make on the show biz chessboard. What will click with audiences? What will resonate? At the same time, there is an artificiality to her records. They sound sped up, like the Chipmunks or something, and probably autocorrected. When she sings live, she sounds about an octave south of the recorded version.

The “Material Girl” video, with its echoes of Marilyn Monroe doing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is also the most crystal illustration of her post-modern quality. Like a hermit crab she is always climbing into other personae to harness the power of a host shell. Her movie career, spotty though it is, includes numerous period pieces that seem like attempts to anchor her in the world of classicism. It is marvelously well calculated; it’s just that she’s not very good in them. Susan Seidelman’sDesperately Seeking Susan (1985) is her best one, because she is aloof and distant and not required to actually act. The George Harrison-produced Shanghai Surprise (1986) co-starring her first husband (and attacker) Sean Penn, was a huge disappointment. And through a couple of dozen films, she never got better, and most of them are stinkers. They include Who’s That Girl (1987, the theme song of which is the best thing about it), the Damon Runyon inspired mess Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), the unworthy Dick Tracy (1990), Penny Marshall’sA League of Their Own (1992), the aforementioned Body of Evidence (1993), the musical Evita (1996), and a few others. From 2000 to 2008 she was married to director Guy Ritchie, who helmed some of her videos, and the 2002 movie Swept Away, which has a 5% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In recent years, she’ll burst into the public consciousness again from time to time, like when she sexy-kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, or when she performed the Superbowl Halftime Show a decade later. She has lived in Portugal since 2017, and is currently worth $850 million. She is an icon and role model to millions. Light a candle to Madonna, say I!

For more on show business history,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous; and keep an eye out for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.