TORONTO - John Legend's trademark R&B-soul sound may have evolved on his third album, Evolver - there's the Andre 3000-accompanied dance song and first single, Green Light, for starters - but has he evolved as a live performer?

The answer is yes, for the most part, judging from his sold-out show at Roy Thomson Hall on Friday night even if he's still a long way to go until he lives up to his assumed last name. (He was born John Stephens.)

The 29-year-old Ohio native and frequent visitor to Toronto - he reminded the outspoken crowd they've been supporting him since his club playing days in the city - doesn't stayed glued to his piano anymore which verged on boring in the past.

On the contrary, Legend spends equal amount times standing up in front of a microphone as he does seated at his Yamaha these days.

And the freedom to move worked, for the most part, whether the leather-clad singer was charming the ladies with his thrusting dance moves, songs about love, lovemaking and heartbreak, dueting with one of his two female backup singers, or slow-dancing with a female audience member which saw him sinking down to one knee, and later giving her a rose, a hug and a kiss.

But there's still the nagging feeling that Legend - who rose through the ranks courtesy of collaborations with such A-listers as Kanye West, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and has nabbed five Grammys of his own since his 2004 breakthrough album, Get Lifted - is still a work in progress as a frontman in a live setting.

It's true he is slick and smooth and sexy and looks and sounds great - the show opened with a sleek-looking black and white film of Legend in a boxing ring before he casually walked through the crowd and climbed up on stage - but he too easily relies on playing the Lothario card (enough with the scantily clad women on the video screen behind him) instead of displaying his raw goods.

His genuine talent came and went in full effect during the rousing Used To Love U, It's Over, Alright, Heaven, Stereo, Let's Get Lifted, the reggae-tinged No Other Love, This Time, his breakthough song Ordinary People - which featured him just alone on piano during the encore - and the anthemic concert-ender If You're Out There, which saw pictures of such leaders as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Bob Marley, John Lennon, displayed on the back video screen leading up to the final shot of Barack Obama. (He actually debuted If You're Out There during the Democratic National Convention in the summer.)

Legend also gets credit for listening to some critics who had problems with the pacing of his tour opener less than two weeks ago in Minneapolis on Nov. 19, which saw him move too quickly through some twenty plus songs from his three albums.

While it's still a pretty fast-paced 100-minute show, he cut some songs, added others and there seemed to be the appropriate pauses between the tunes delivered by Legend and his 10-piece band, which included a three man horn section that energized everything they played on.

Maybe we should just be thankful that Legend even appeared on Friday night.

He admitted some problems with Customs officials at the Canadian border almost led to the show not happening.

"I almost didn't make it," said Legend, who claims in his travels all over the world it's Canada that gives him the hardest time at the border.

Go figure, given that angelic face.

SET LIST

Used To Love U

Satisfaction

It's Over

Alright

Heaven

Stereo

Quickly

Let's Get Lifted

She Don't Have to Know

Stay With You

Slow Dance

PDA

Good Morning

No Other Love

Number One

Save Room

I Can Change

Everybody Knows

This Time/So High

Green Light

ENCORE:

Ordinary People

If You're Out There