Salacious Mr. Showbiz

BARELY 10 minutes into his two-hour set Saturday at the Gibson Amphitheatre, R. Kelly squinted at the near-capacity crowd and yelled, “I want to do it like that rock [stuff],” urging his fans to confound the ushers and rush the stage.

The audience, naturally, complied, raising a frenzy that felt a little outrageous, especially so early in the show. But this notorious pop Lothario knows outrageousness is an art.

On Saturday, Kelly practiced indiscretion with a dancer’s finesse. Or a comic’s: Although his musical ambition remains very serious, the author of erotic odes like “Snake” and “Sex Weed” has learned to use humor to temper his overactive libido.

The singer’s real-life scandals (since 2002, he’s been embroiled in a legal battle over alleged videotaped sex with a minor) could have destroyed him, but he’s defeated fans’ doubts by converting his satyriasis into dirty satire.

During this entertainingly stagy, career-spanning show, he mimed carnal behavior, imitated it a cappella, offered culinary and automotive metaphors for it, and whipped out a crumpled lyric sheet to remind himself of the specific words he’d used to describe it in song. No consequences were mentioned, except as another quip: “I got three kids from this one,” he chuckled before offering his early hit “Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ).”

The crowd, mostly women and date-night couples, embraced Kelly’s lasciviousness. Ladies reached up as he sang “Strip for You,” grabbing his hand, tugging his shirt, rubbing his thighs. Men laughed along with his double-entendres during “Sex in the Kitchen.”

Tapping into a legacy of comical raunch that stretches from Bessie Smith to rapper Lil Jon, Kelly earned the title he’s taken on for this tour -- “Mr. Showbiz” -- by turning smut into burlesque.

He even found a new boundary to push with the fresh composition “The Zoo,” playing around with racial stereotypes by comparing himself and his lover to kangaroos, wildcats and, yes, monkeys.

It would have been nice if Kelly had been as adventurous with his music.

A supple tenor with one of hip-hop-era R&B;’s most emotional voices, Kelly has been as bold with his music as with his lyrics, mixing hip-hop elements with gospel and even opera. But on this tour, he’s coasting -- squeezing his many hits into singalong medleys, keeping the tempo mellow, avoiding his toughest vocal tests altogether.

The biggest disappointment came late in the set, when a purple wardrobe brought onstage signaled the start of Kelly’s 2005 art song “Trapped in the Closet.”

Best known for an elaborate plot line that includes adultery, bisexuality, Berettas and a midget, the 12-part song also adventures melodically. Its recitative style presents Kelly with a major singing challenge, and on the recording, he exceeds it. But live, he chose to lip-sync, putting all his energy into some homophobic mincing while miming the song’s one gay character and cutting the epic short after only three chapters. What might have been an artistic climax ended up a dud.

Undefeated by his own bad choice, Kelly reemerged after a brief interlude in a white zoot suit, leading his five-piece band and three singers in songs from his groove-kissed 2004 tribute to 1970s soul, “Happy People/U Saved Me.”

The music’s sweetness and its maestro’s blissful dancing offered the audacious evening’s final provocation: It made it easy to forget the salacious side of this immensely talented man.

Doing so, Kelly truly became Mr. Showbiz, because in showbiz, you never have to show your bad side.