Madonna on Canceling Her Boston Shows: ‘The Pain I’m in Right Now Is Overwhelming’
By Lorraine Wheat
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Madonna canceled her intimate “Madame X” tour dates in Boston on Wednesday, stating she was experiencing “overwhelming” pain and would not be able to perform at the Wang Theatre during her scheduled dates from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.
“Please forgive this unexpected turn of events. Doing my show every night brings me so much joy and to cancel is a kind of punishment for me, but the pain I’m in right now is overwhelming, and I must rest and follow doctor’s orders so I can come back stronger and better and continue the Madame X journey with all of you,” shared in an Instagram post to her 14 million followers.
Her tour promoter, Live Nation, confirmed the news, saying in a statement, “As we are unable to reschedule the dates due to the tight scheduling through the balance of the year, refunds will be automatically issued to the credit card on which they were ordered.”
No changes have been announced for the remaining dates on the tour, which picks up Dec. 7 in Philadelphia.
Earlier this month, Madonna told an audience she was suffering from a torn ligament and knee problems as she wrapped up a three-night stand at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre. But attendees at a subsequent 10-night stint at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, which just wrapped up Monday night, said she appeared to be in top form.
The tour has her taking a detour from large stadiums and ventures to performances in intimate venues, with 12 numbers in the 21-song set list being from her “Madame X” album, released in June.
Madonna has canceled a few other dates on the tour. She had to postpone the opening dates of the tour in New York due to production delays. Then after several days at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in New York, Madonna called off the show due to injury. Madonna also canceled her Nov. 12 opening night L.A. performance at the Wiltern.
Some fans have complained about the unusually late hours for the tour dates, which were announced with more traditional starting times, then publicly pushed back to 10:30 p.m. At a Las Vegas date, she reportedly didn’t begin the show until midnight. After news reports that boos broke out as fans waited, she responded on Twitter with a video of herself saying, “Here’s something that you all need to understand, and that is that a queen is never late.” In her long L.A. stand, she was reported as coming on closer to the 11:00 hour for the shows, which were advertised by the theater as being “approximately two hours and 20 minutes long.”
In early November, Madonna told a San Francisco crowd that she was “battling a cold, suffering a torn ligament and had a bad knee — ‘and no hours of sleep,’” according to a San Francisco Chronicle review . Nonetheless, said the paper, the star “still managed to pull off a spectacular show. It was rife with bawdy humor, attitude, sex, loads of swear words and references to her private parts. It was basically everything you’d want from a Madonna concert. She demanded the same level of effort from her audience, despite inexplicably sweltering temperatures inside the theater. … ‘You’re kind of lazy — just putting that out there,’ Madonna said, midway through the show. ‘It’s OK. Because I’m not.’”
