Review: Lady Gaga’s "Mayhem Ball" is all-out spectacular in Chicago

Monsters never die. Hear them growl.

That’s the most obvious takeaway from Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem Ball” tour, an all-out spectacular that threatened to break free of the United Center Monday at the first of a sold-out, three-night stand. Expanding her propensity for grandness to extreme proportions, the singer pushed the limits of possibility and created a flood of sensory impulses.

Built around four acts and a finale, Gaga’s brilliant extravaganza spun narratives that pitted her against an alter-ego twin of herself amid scenes that dazzled with color and choreography. The Gaga who ultimately won the battle mattered little (no spoilers here), given how wonderfully she and her team integrated theatricality, humor, horror, beauty, camp, fashion, movement and sound.

Rife with escapism and enh