# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The crowd outside the historic Kings Theatre on Flatbush Avenue was daunting-more than 3,000 people!-clomping over the slick, hardened slush on the sidewalk, trickling in so slowly that the show had to start a bit fashionably late. It was diverse in the best sense: black, white, hipsters (including the original, wrinkled, non-twee variety), prosperous boomers, just-fashionable-enough media folk, thick-accented sons of The Real Brooklyn who proudly regaled everyone within earshot of how they grew up a block away and never expected this!

Diana Ross was playing for one night only-anointing the $95 million rebirth of the legendary 1929 theater-and there is only one Diana Ross. She has been a star for more than 50 years, with a glamorous, grand-dame command of the universe equaled only by Barbra Streisand. When she burst on the scene as the kittenish, Keane-painting-eyed star of the Supremes in the early 1960s, she was Jackie Kennedy and Rosa Parks rolled into one, with that melancholic soprano voice, that sleek helmet of black hair, those couture-like gowns she was skinny enough to bounce around inside with the careless panache of a runway model. And all of this during the last gasp of dowdy, segregated America. Everyone-boys and girls-seemed to have a life-saving crush on the glorious creature who sang "Baby Love" when they were miserably 16 in some dreary white suburb. Now they were standing in line in the cold, in Brooklyn, in 2015. They knew all of this about her, including the fact that she has navigated this last quarter of her career with strength and grace.

The interior of the theater-from the multi-story-high ceiling mural to the ornately sculptured walls-is breathtaking. That it was inspired by, as its Web site puts it, "the French Renaissance Revival style of the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Opera House," is no exaggeration. Plus: there's a bar, so you can bring libations to your seat and drink during a show-what is not to like? (In the coming months, the Kings Theatre will host the likes of Sufjan Stevens, the O'Jays, Crosby Stills & Nash, and Widespread Panic.)

Diana danced down the aisle singing " I'm Coming Out," her late-70s gay-liberation anthem. She wore a fluffy turquoise tulle robe with a monster train over a slinky, sparkly green sheath-the first of a rotating cycle of modernizing-Bob Mackie numbers in five different colors.

The show was Diana's greatest hits, and it didn't disappoint. After doing "My World Is Empty Without You," she segued into her earliest Supremes crowd-pleasers: " Come See About Me" (people in the front rows were now standing, dancing and clapping, as they would the whole evening), "Baby Love," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and " You Can't Hurry Love." The band (heavy on horns) with three backup singers did the Motown arrangements proud, updating them deftly. The durability of these Holland-Dozier-Holland gems, which Berry Gordy used as a centerpiece for making Motown "The Sound of Young America," was impossible to miss. Twelve of the Supremes' songs had been No. 1 hits (no female singing group has ever equaled that feat), and Diana dove into her own evergreens with confident buoyancy and no hint of I'm-older-now wistfulness.

She pivoted into "Love Child," from 1968: post-peak Supremes, when the group had been rebranded Diana Ross and the Supremes. Songs now had to have explicit social relevance-counterculture-era FM radio demanded it-and, then as now, Diana's voice transcended the imperfect fit of beat-driven Motown (which had managed to change the culture with zero preaching) with "heavy" meaning. Now in a red spangled gown, Diana next launched into one of my favorites: " The Boss," written by the peerless Ashford and Simpson, who brought their gospel passion to the disco era. After doing a sultry "Love Hangover" and "Ease on Down the Road," her saxophonist serviced what may be considered the Vegas quadrant of her fan base with "The Look of Love," the Bacharach standard that she covered both with the Supremes and as a solo artist. Diana's 2015 In the Name of Love tour-the Kings Theatre date was conceived as the kickoff-is expected to go wide, and this song may not have been Brooklyn's cup of tea, but Diana has an eclectic audience.

After this detour into Dionne Warwick territory, she got down to it. "Do I have any jazz and blues lovers in the house?" Hel-lo? Over the thunderous yeses, she said, "We're gonna do songs from Lady Sings the Blues." This, of course, was the vehicle through which she decimated cynics who thought that she, the Top 40 goddess, couldn't possibly channel Billie Holiday. She was masterful in the 1972 biopic, losing the best-actress Oscar to Liza Minnelli ( Cabaret), which was, at the time, a crushing blow to Diana-and to her fans. She sang " Don't Explain " as poignantly as she did in the movie.

After "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" (her 1981 remake of the Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' toe tapper) and another costume change (dazzling yellow), came "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," from her second movie. The song was nominated for an Oscar, and it brought back the era when juggling success and love (see also: the late Jill Clayburgh) was the emotional bone being chewed in female-centric films and their theme songs. With "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," half the audience was standing, swaying, dancing. "I Will Survive"-the anthem of Diana's friend, disco queen Gloria Gaynor-was the official last song, and the meaning seemed clear. Diana Ross had survived: life in the Detroit projects; the South during violent segregation; teenage mega-stardom on a scale that could demolish someone of lesser character; fickle musical audiences; an unfair depiction in Dreamgirls.

The crowd was on its feet for an encore, and, when Diana re-emerged (in black sparkles: "This is my going-home dress!"), she appeared to be moved and grateful. "You really are so amazing," she told her enraptured audience. "And this beautiful palace! I feel like a queen!" She sang " Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," her paean to empathy.

Diana called her oldest daughter, the actress and singer Rhonda Ross Kendrick, onstage to sing a few rousing bars in her own distinctive voice. "My son is in the audience! Evan! Come out!" Diana called, and out onto the stage came tall, square-jawed Evan Naess, one of her two sons with her second husband, the late Arne Naess Jr. With Evan was his wife, Ashlee Simpson, who is pregnant, and Ashlee's little boy. (The gifted actress Tracee Ellis Ross, of the hit show Black-ish, and the children's writer Chudney Ross are -along with Rhonda- Diana's daughters with her first husband, Bob Ellis, with whom she remains close).

The group on the stage was fitting: perhaps Diana's biggest triumph is her family. By every account, she is a superb mother. After a brief reprise of "I Will Survive"-bluesy, this time-they bounded off the stage, and 3,000 people schlepped out to deepest Brooklyn on a messy, freezing night to celebrate.

Get Vanity Fair's HWD Newsletter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Diana Ross Brings Down the House in Brooklyn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The crowd outside the historic Kings Theatre on Flatbush Avenue was daunting-more than 3,000 people!-clomping over the slick, hardened slush on the sidewalk, trickling in so slowly that the show had to start a bit fashionably late.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find a Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough first pressing or reissue. Complete your Michael Jackson collection. Shop Vinyl and CDs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Official Video)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Donna Summer  I Feel Love Original  8 minute 12" version 1977

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Official Video - Upscaled)

# data[].attributes.body
This music is significant to history because it was all inclusive music, black and white people listened to it, and the music was started by the gay community.

# data[].attributes.body
During Disco Demolition night, after the explosion of the Disco records, the field was so damaged that the White Sox had to forfeit their game.

# data[].attributes.body
Funk

Black Pop

# data[].attributes.body
Fast Tempo

Beat orientated

Synths

Heavy Bass

# data[].attributes.body
Diana Ross

Michael Jackson

Bee Gees

Donna Summer

# data[].attributes.body
1977-1979