Britney's Back!

Britney Spears' first tour in five years is officially titled "The Circus" tour, but it really could be called the "Rehabilitation Project," because it's yet another attempt to rebuild the image and career of the former pop queen.

So far she has a platinum-plus album with "Circus" and at least two hit singles, but how did she do as far as her performance? Well, it looks like it was a good effort, but not great.

Here's a sampling of the reviews:

People's Chuck Arnold wrote:

Don't call it a comeback quite yet. Britney Spears still isn't all the way there. At least not from the standpoint of the kickoff concert of her much-anticipated Circus tour – her first trek in five years – at the New Orleans Arena Tuesday night. While she avoided the train wreck that was her 2007 MTV Video Music Awards appearance, a visibly nervous Spears, performing in front of enthusiastic fans near her Kentwood, La., hometown, never really hit her old stride.

The Los Angeles' Times' Ann Powers wrote:

Her singing was dominated by a backing track. Her moves were nothing special -- defined by much strutting and stripper-like shimmying, with the minimum amount of acrobatics to prove her mettle as a dance-pop queen. Her physical form, still beautiful, didn't take one's breath away the way it did when she was 17.But on Tuesday's opening night of her "Circus" tour at the New Orleans Arena, Britney Spears, the mighty Aphrodite with the troublesome tawdry streak, nonetheless renewed her claim as one of the world's most adept manipulators of the public interest.

And even Perez Hilton, part of the show via a video sequence, said:

Now, let's get our biggest gripe/problem with the show out of the way. Yes, she lipsynchs during the entire concert. There is no live singing. None!. She recorded vocals to "sound like" live, but they were all canned, pre-taped.
However, it's a Britney Spears show. You expect that!
Even though you expect it, though, it would be nice if at least a handful of the almost 20 song set were live. But, that's not gonna happen.
In exchange for the miming, you do get Spears doing what she does best, dancing. And she's got the moves again!

Based on those reviews, it looks like she would get a B-? It may not have been spectacular, but we're still looking forward to seeing her in Newark next weekend!