Kylie Minogue
Sydney Entertainment Center (1200 seats)
$A30.5O top. Promoted by Frontier Touring. Reviewed Feb. 5.

Kylie Minogue's unfailing energy and enthusiasm in performance had her mostly prepubescent audience screaming ecstatically the entire 80 minutes. Set was slick but overproduced, with Minogue often swallowed up by her surroundings, but shining enough to defy the cynics.

After years of ridicule in the local press, Minogue has restyled her image, becoming almost a hip cult figure. Now she's a cross between Debbie Gibson and Madonna, and with the status she holds here and in the U.K. has the potential to be bigger than both.

Minogue delivered strong renditions of her hits "Locomotion," "I Should Be So Lucky," "Got To Be Certain" and "Hand On Your Heart." Backed by six musicians and six backup singers, and flanked by four dancers, Minogue often was obscured by the pizzazz.

She was at her best singing the ballads "Tear's On My Pillow," accompanied by a cappella trio Ten Wedge, and "Tell Tale Signs." She could benefit from some well-scripted patter to communicate the intelligence she conveys in interviews. Not that the children screaming at this concert would have cared, dazzled as they were by the choreography, light and Minogue's three costumes. — Krug.