Review: No ‘Hannah’? No problem

Miley Cyrus was a little late to the party, but no one seemed to mind.

Packed to the rafters, more than 14,000 folks attended the makeup date for Cyrus’ Omaha concert, postponed after the singer got sick.

“I’m so sorry I missed you guys the first time,” Cyrus told the crowd. “I got a little sick, but I’m so happy to be back.”

Wearing a cleavage-baring tank top and leather shorts, the 16-year-old singer strutted, shook and danced across the stage for an hour and a half Tuesday at Qwest Center Omaha.

She went through as many as eight costume changes, most of which showed quite a lot of leg.

The production was an odd sort of spectacle — a serious case of sensory overload featuring 10 backup dancers, a full band, two backing singers and enough flashing lights, video screens and props to induce a seizure.

It was all designed to focus more on keeping the crowd of mostly 5- to 15-year-old girls entertained and much less on showcasing Cyrus’ voice or her kid-friendly pop.

When she was running around the stage (which was most of the time), Cyrus’ voice wasn’t at its best. Her powerful pipes really shined only during moments when she stopped moving — like when she sat down in the middle of her band during the acoustic “Four Walls.”

Kids in the audience didn’t care much about the singing. After Cyrus asked them to “make some noise if you know the moves to ‘Hoedown Throwdown,’” they practically drowned out the song with screams.

During that song and others, the girls (and a few boys) in the crowd belted out the words and danced along to the videos playing above the stage.

The show focused on her songs as Miley Cyrus, which seems like an effort to distance the singer from her Disney Channel alter ego, Hannah Montana. Popular hits, including her current single, “Party in the USA,” and older tunes such as “See You Again,” populated the set.

Only a few Hannah Montana tunes made it into the mix. “The Climb,” from the “Hannah” movie, appeared in the show’s encore, long after “Hoedown Throwdown” popped up in the middle of the show.

She may not have worn her blonde Hannah Montana wig, but her concert still appeared fueled by the Disney machine.

The concourses at the Qwest Center were filled with Miley merchandise stands, program booths, contest entry kiosks, mobile phone fan club sign-ups and innumerable ads for Cyrus’ Walmart clothing line.

There was even a Walmart-sponsored booth where fans could “get a picture with Miley,” wherein the starlet was superimposed next to a fan.

To top it off, a promotional trailer for Cyrus’ 2010 film, “The Last Song,” was played in the middle of the concert.

The whole shebang looked poised to sell as many T-shirts, CDs, DVDs and other Miley and Hannah merchandise as possible.

It worked. Lines for the booths were long, and as parents streamed out of the arena, many carried armfuls of posters and programs while their smiling little ones left in brand-new Miley shirts.

Contact the writer:

444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com