POP/ROCK - April 16, 1990

Who’s That Wet Girl?: April showers tried to put a damper on the opening show of Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” world tour in Japan. A capacity crowd of 34,000 huddled under umbrellas, ponchos and towels at the open-air Chiba Marine Stadium in a suburb of Tokyo, and cheered continually as the concert proceeded during a steady downpour. Madonna had trouble with her footing early in the show, and repeatedly asked her crew to mop the stage for her and her dancers. “I’ll bet you didn’t know you were going to get an Ice Capades show, did you?” she said after hydroplaning across a puddle. Tickets for the nine Japan concerts--costing as much as $62 each--have been sold out for weeks.