It was the kind of “Bedtime Story” that only Madonna could tell.
In the true tradition of her notoriously late concert starts, the Queen of Pop kept her loyal subjects waiting until almost 11 p.m. before taking the stage to kick off the US leg of her “Celebration Tour” at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Wednesday night.
Due to the tour’s postponement — after a serious bacterial infection sent Madonna to the ICU in June — local fans already had to wait four months since the original New York dates in August were rescheduled.
So what’s another couple of hours?
Although the tickets had a scheduled 8:30 p.m. start — rather than the usual 8 — absolutely no one expected Madge to go on then. And with an unexpected opening DJ set by star spinner Honey Dijon, it became clear that the singer wasn’t going to go on before 10 p.m.
As Honey worked the crowd into a fierce frenzy, the arena was transformed into one big club that hosted a reunion of New York nightlife scenesters who may not go out like they used to, but got back into the groove for Madonna.
And after about a 40-minute break that made it feel even later on a school night, Madonna gave the fans all that they had been waiting for with 40 years of hit after hit from the woman who invented Eras long before Taylor Swift.
Just as it felt like a reunion for many in the audience, it was a homecoming for Madonna after two months on tour in Europe. (And she’ll be back at Barclays Center on Thursday and Saturday before Madison Square Garden dates on Jan. 22, 23 and 29.)
After taking it back to her early days with “Everybody,” her 1982 debut single, and “Into the Groove,” she embraced the Big Apple love in her own New Yorker way. “It’s like a big fat smelly rat . . . [putting] their arms around you,” she said.
Then the 65-year-old icon embraced a version of the young Madonna who came up from the New York club scene in the early ’80s.
“It’s weird that I’m hugging a girl that’s dressed like me four decades ago — that’s 40 years ago,” she said to the cheering crowd.
“The point I’m trying to make here is that it’s important to never forget where you came from . . . always remember the struggle. I mean, for me it never ends. But this is where it all began, and I’m proud of this little girl over here.”
And as she told her story through songs — in a career-spanning set list culled from her 1983 self-titled debut through 2019’s “Madame X” — Madonna demonstrated just how much of a survivor she has been.
“When I came to New York . . . within the blink of an eye, so many of my friends were gone,” she said, referencing the AIDS crisis that is revisited in “Live To Tell” for the show’s most moving moment.
“And I felt a kind of survivor’s guilt. Like, how come I made it and they didn’t? So I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones. And I hope that y’all feel lucky too.”
By the time the concert came to a bit of an abrupt end with 2009’s “Celebration,” it was safe to say that most of the Madonna faithful felt fortunate to still be there right with her — even at 1 a.m.
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