Pop Music Reviews : Premature Pro Debbie Gibson at the Forum

Debbie Gibson is the kind of performer that some folks love to hate because to them, she symbolizes a universe in which too much is apportioned to some and too little to others.

Gibson’s concert Sunday at the Forum was no antidote for those looking for weakness in a girl who seems just too, too talented at 18: This premature pro sang, danced and played piano like a seasoned veteran, and was utterly, predictably adorable on top of it, coming off as already one of the finest showwomen in pop. Sorry.

The jealous may take some comfort in the fact that at least she remains an extremely banal lyricist. Take her No. 1 ballad, “Foolish Beat”--performed by Gibson on the white piano that rose periodically from beneath the stage--in which she sings “I could never love again now that we’re apart.”

But at her age, she can be excused for confusing romantic banalities with realities. Gibson is a performer in the rare place where the cusp of some sort of real innocence and the beginning of a very real professionalism overlap, which is why you can buy from her songs that would seem like such schlock from a performer a few years older.

The show’s choreography was flawless fun, and perhaps the most endearing thing Gibson does is a little knock-kneed dance step; she may be the only performer in pop who can dance up a storm in red leather hot pants and still seem joyfully, uninhibitedly asexual.

The show began with “Who Loves Ya Baby?” and ended with “Electric Youth,” in which Gibson equates her own fresh-faced exuberance with the spirit of the ‘60s, and seems to believe it. It was Good Clean Fun, and it was pretty good, too.