Singer Lady Gaga performs in concert at Radio City Music...

Singer Lady Gaga performs in concert at Radio City Music Hall on Jan. 20, 2010. Credit: Getty Images / Kevin Mazur

LadyGaga lies in a heap on the Radio City Music Hall stage, explaining sweetly, in her oversized sunglasses and revealing black leotard, how she's like Tinkerbell.

After the response isn't loud enough for her liking, she screams, "Do you want me to die?"

Welcome to the Lady Gaga spectacle - a place designed to get attention and acceptance, all to the thump of a Europop dance beat and a grand costume flourish.

"Here at the Monster Ball we celebrate love and unity," she told her fans, whom she calls "little monsters." "Remember when you are lonely, I am lonely too."

In the Haus of Gaga, music never comes first - the band only plays and appears onstage occasionally - but that's OK, considering it's not what Lady Gaga does best. Sure, it helps that her current smash "Bad Romance" is catchy, but Gaga has grown from New York lounge singer Stefani Germanotta into, at this moment, the biggest pop star in the world with a craft combination of performance art and image cultivation.

Last night's "Monster Ball" show at Radio City Music Hall was her first since last Thursday when she collapsed and was treated for exhaustion and dehydration, resulting in the cancellation or postponement of four shows, including Monday's show at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. She is scheduled to return to Radio City Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

At some point, Gaga will wear out her welcome or overstep her bounds - the shockers always do. Lucky for her, she still has plenty of room to grow. And when she took to the piano to masterfully deliver the ballad "Speechless," in all its Bowiesque grandeur, Gaga revealed that beneath all that style may be a whole lot of substance as well.

>> PHOTOS: Click here to see photos of Lady Gag and her crazy stylings

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