Shortly after Madonna departed San Francisco on her Madame X Tour last week, her first show in Las Vegas was reportedly met with boos and 500 demands for refunds when she took the stage at 12:30 a.m. — two hours late for her already late scheduled curtain time of 10:30 p.m.
Madonna rolled onto stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace technically on Friday morning, as Fox 5 Vegas reports, and much as was the case in San Francisco, it was likely only her super-fans who fully forgave her. Some fans reportedly booed and chanted "refund," and plenty took to Twitter afterwards to complain — after they'd retrieved their cellphones from their locked pouches at this no-cellphone show.
As TMZ reports, Madonna addressed the audience Friday saying, "Here's something you all need to understand ... and that is, that the queen is never late."
Madonna has, throughout her 40-year career, had a reputation for starting concerts late, and for that reason her reps are telling people that this should have been expected. But starting a show primarily populated by people over the age of 35 after midnight is kinda pushing it, no? Are Madonna's True-Blue super-fans just stuck in an abusive relationship at this point?
Commenters on my review of the SF show last week were quick to attack me for sounding crotchety about my complaints about a show ending at 1:30 a.m., but this one in Vegas wrapped up closer to 2:45 a.m. And according to reports from the Vegas show, Madge "rib[bed] the audience by essentially calling them poor." At the SF show, she also complained, two hours into the show, that people were getting up to go to the bathroom and opening the rear doors of the theater, accusing them of having attention-deficit disorder.
Madonna posted a video to Twitter with the note, "Bringing the [fire emoji] to Vegas," and multiple fans at the show replied with things like, "1.5 hours late. Indifferent-to-hostile audience. Juvenile attempts at humor met with audience silence. I’ve never seen anyone less in control of a room. Truly amateurish."
1.5 hours late. Indifferent-to-hostile audience. Juvenile attempts at humor met with audience silence. I’ve never seen anyone less in control of a room. Truly amateurish.
— Roy Hall (@459dorillo) November 8, 2019
You were seriously late to the show your fans payed good $ to see = disrespectful
— vacation_chaser (@vacation_chaser) November 8, 2019
Fans were walking out, if you can’t see that’s a problem you’ve a big problem on your hands.
The website Wonderwall heard from sources that 500 refunds were issued before and during the Vegas show.
Meanwhile, NBC News is reporting that a fan in Florida is now suing for a refund for three tickets for which he paid $1,024.95 total, claiming that the original start time listed for the concert was 8:30 p.m., and changing the official start time to 10:30 p.m. significantly lessens the value of the tickets. Per the suit from ticketholder Nate Hollander, "Ticketholders had to work and go to school the next day, which prevented them from attending a concert that would end at around 1:00 a.m."
The suit was filed last week, November 4, regarding tickets that are for Madonna's December 17 show in Miami.
Related: Madonna Wants To Be Your Mom, Provocateur, and High Priestess in 'Madame X' Tour, and It's A Lot