Las Vegas Weekly

August 3, 2009 · 12:26 PM

A night with the bootylicious Beyoncé

By Melissa Arseniuk

Beyonce at the Encore Theater in the Wynn.

Photo: Isaac Brekken/WireImage

There may have been no encore at the Encore Theater last night, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind.

Beyoncé Knowles sang, danced and otherwise proved her bootylicious self, leaving little to be desired.

The performance was the last of the 27-year-old sensation’s “I am… Yours” North American tour.

Knowles had to rework her entire live show for the tour’s final four performances in the Wynn’s intimate, 1,500-seat Encore Theater.

“She’s really looking forward to the intimacy of this,” Knowles’ mother, Tina Knowles, said last week. “It’s a different show from her ‘I am… (Yours)’ tour, completely different, … (and) she’s very excited about being able to do songs that she doesn’t get to do on the show regularly.”

Backed by an 18-member, all-female band, Beyoncé drew from a range of hits for last night’s concert, sourcing songs from both her solo career and former Destiny’s Child days.

From the girl group’s breakout single, “No No No” to her recent solo release, “Halo,” the crowd heard it all.

Meanwhile, hits like “Bootylicious,” “Single Ladies” and “If I Were a Boy” kept the audience on its feet for most of the night.

Though Sasha Fierce kept fans waiting for more than 40 minutes, she made a grand entrance. As the curtain raised to reveal the band onstage at about 8:45 p.m., the songstress appeared at the back of the theater and made her way down the aisle and onto the stage, greeting fans as she went.

Once Beyoncé took to the stage, she hardly left it.

Appearing both on her own and with back-up dancers, she worked the theater from left to right throughout the showcase. She sang, danced, and looked good while she did it.

All the while, a stage fan kept her long brown hair blowing in the manmade wind as she playfully and, at times, fiercely, tossed her tresses about.

Using a teleprompter at the back of the room as her guide, Beyoncé narrated the latter half of the show by telling the story of her emotional and professional journey, from her early beginnings as a contestant on Star Search to her present success.

While fashionable divas of her caliber are often known for elaborate attire and multiple wardrobe changes, the icon made the most of her stage time and endured just one major costume change.

She sparkled from beginning to end, first in beaded Jean Paul Gaultier couture, then in a cape-like jacket for the first half of the show. Both pieces were worn on top of a figure-flaunting grey bodysuit that left little to the imagination.

Later, she traded the bodysuit for a black sequined, bathing suit-like number that, again, left no curve unnoticed.

Indeed, the mezzo-soprano is as easy on the eyes as she is on the ears.

Fans who were unable to attend or afford the $250 to $1000-per-seat performance for themselves will soon be able see what they missed: Video crews captured the entire performance and the footage will soon be used to produce a special, live-from -Las Vegas DVD.

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