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Harlequin's Love Tale By Mother Monster
- Niomi Dylan Sass
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Niomi Dylan Sass
Lady Gaga gave her fans the ultimate Christmas present last year, a one-night-only filmed concert of her performing the Harlequin album. This album was curated with some songs from the motion picture Joker 2: Folie à Deux (2024), some original tracks, and some reimagined jazz classics. All of these songs tell a story of a girl falling madly in love, and how that love now controls her life. The performance was broken into 4 different acts with multiple costume changes, adding to the grandness of this concert. Performed in Los Angeles, California, at The Belasco Theatre, and uploaded to YouTube for free.
The set is covered with a curtain that has been sewn together in a patchy style with different off-white pieces of fabric. She takes center stage in front of the curtain, along with her quartet of backup singers, performing the song “Good Morning,” which was an original piece created for Lady Gaga’s album.
ACT I: “If A Nice Gal Can Lose, What’s It Matter If You Win”
The song that opens up this act is “Get Happy,” and the curtain gets drawn back, revealing the set for the show. It looks like an apartment that is messy, cluttered, and falling apart. Her jazz band is placed throughout the apartment, silhouetted with lights. During this song, she starts jumping on her bed gleefully, thrashing a feather-filled pillow around, making the feathers scatter and fly all over the stage. She ends the song lying down on the bed and stays there until the next one starts.
Harlequin finds a clown-looking baby doll and starts singing “Oh, When The Saints,” a reimagined classic that was credited to Lady Gaga and her co-writers. She uses this song to interact with the band by performing throughout the set. The messiness of her apartment feels like a physical representation of how cluttered her thoughts and feelings are. There are still feathers in her hair while she gives high-energy performances, turning up the LA crowd to some jazzy bops. At the end of this song, the curtain closes.
ACT II: “Life Is A Beautiful Thing (Sorta)”
The curtain opens up, and the lighting for the set is turning red, which has the symbolism of strong emotions like love, passion, and danger. Harlequin performs the next song, “World On A String.” She begins singing this song by walking back into her apartment, looking as if she just arrived home from an exquisite night out. During this performance, I got the sense of contemplation. She is trying to convince not only herself but the whole world that she’s lucky to have found love. Ending this performance, lying on top of the grand piano, longing for her partner.
She sets up the next song by talking to the audience, saying that if they had done this concert back in New York about 15 years ago, they would have been so cool.
“Welcome To The Million Dollar Chicken Coop.”
The next song she sings is “If My Friends Could See Me,” and she performs it on top of the piano with a rose in her hand the whole time. The rose felt like it was given to her by her lover. She is showboating the flower to the audience and giving a dynamically diligent performance.
Next up, “That’s Entertainment.” Harlequin gets off the piano and puts on a show. The lighting on the set is turning green, which evokes the feeling of something tranquil or a form of psychological distress. Perhaps both? This song has a lot of instrumental moments in which Gaga highlights her band by performing around the soloists. What amazes me the most is how much she headbangs in this song. Not only does her wig stay on the whole time, but the gorgeous tiny black fascinator didn’t move an inch.
ACT III: “If There Are Clouds In The Sky, You’ll Get By”
We see Harlequin in a new costume, lying in her bed very sorrowfully, singing the song “Smile,” which was originally composed by Charlie Chaplin in 1936. I think this is a moment where Harlequin is starting to see the writing on the wall. Her partner isn’t what she thought he was, but she still can’t help but be in love. There is some beautiful cinematography going on during this song. She’s lying on her bed, looking up into lights coming down from the holes in the ceiling, while the trumpet player joins her at the foot of the bed behind her.
“The King Wears A Funny Suit”
Harlequin performs a rock version of the song “The Joker,” which was originally performed by Joaquin Phoenix in the movie musical. She plays a sick teal-green electric guitar that matches the current lightscape of the set. All while singing so fiercely. There are no other words to describe Lady Gaga other than a bad ass. The lights start going crazy during the bridge of the song, adding such an intense factor to the stage. This one was definitely my favorite of the night.
After that powerhouse of a song, the next one is much softer and French, “Folie à Deux,” which translates in English as “madness for two.” It feels like a total dream state because the lights all turn white, and fog fully engulfs the floor under her. You can tell this is the moment when Harlequin is imagining the beautiful life that she and the Joker could have together. Whether the world thinks she’s crazy or not for loving a man like him.
ACT IV: “Gonna Build Me A Heaven From A Little Hell”
This act opens up with Harlequin spearheading the grand piano, playing it, and singing “Gonna Build A Mountain.” She has completely gone crazy for him and is promising all the good things she can give him from being bad. If God is a woman, she is Lady Gaga. She continues playing the piano into the next song, “Close To You.” You can tell there is nothing more in the world that Harlequin wants than the Joker’s love. The way she plays piano surpasses the style of anyone; it's wild yet tame, completely jaw-droppingly exquisite.
“I’m Gonna Change Their Tune, When I’m Back On Top In June”
Lady Gaga speaks to the audience more to segue into the next song, she says, “Well, you know, f*cked up sh*t happens sometimes, and that’s life.” Which is also the title of the next song, “That’s Life.” While she is performing this song, the whole set is changing all the different colors from throughout the show, while Harlequin is staying lit red. This lighting gives me the sense that all the emotions of life are chasing her. However, since she is immersed in a red light, this feels like she is stuck dangerously in love, blind to any other option. This lady is literally headbanging and singing at the same time, like, who can do that? She finishes the concert by jumping on the bed, shaking out the rest of the feathers, and throwing them into the audience, like confetti.
The album and show were curated and created by Lady Gaga. Songs from the movie soundtrack were: “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “Folie à Deux,” “That’s Entertainment,” “The Joker,” “Gonna Build A Mountain,” “I’ve Got The World On A String,” and “That’s Life.” Songs Gaga added were: “Good Morning,” “Get Happy,” “Oh, When The Saints,” “Smile,” “Close To You,” and “Happy Mistake.” I personally didn’t see the movie Joker 2, but this concert was everything that I wanted from that movie anyway. So, if you weren’t a fan of the movie or if you’re just a fan of Lady Gaga, then go to her YouTube channel to watch this high-production, intimate concert with Mother Monster.
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