TORONTO - Oh, Mandy. Well, you came and you gave without taking.
Seriously.
Mandy Moore, the 23-year-old former bubble-gum pop-star-turned-actress-turned-singer-songwriter arrived in Toronto on Saturday night to a woefully undersold Music Hall -- about half-full on the floor and a completely empty balcony.
Maybe Moore just picked the wrong night to play in T.O., given fellow teen-and-twentysomething-friendly pop star, R&B sensation Rihanna, was performing across town at the Molson Amphitheatre on a co-headlining bill with Akon.
Still, a little competition didn't seem to bother Moore, who gamely covered Rihanna's big summer hit, Umbrella, along with Cat Stevens' Moonshadow and Joni Mitchell's Help Me -- the latter two songs from her 2003 covers album, Coverage.
And that small if enthusiastic audience notwithstanding, Moore committed herself fully to her hour-and-10-minute performance.
She chatted easily with fans, like gushing about falling in love in Toronto while filming How to Deal -- "Not a great movie but a great experience," -- even if her awkward stage presence while actually singing signalled an artist still finding her performing legs.
Or arms, as it were.
The sometime actress, whose other credits include A Walk to Remember, Saved, and American Dreamz, often stretched her long appendages out to each side or alternated between wrapping one hand around her head or hitting her thigh hard -- really hard.
When she finally picked up a tambourine and shook it in the faces of her five male band members, she seemed to have figured out what to do with her long, lovely limbs.
She was even relaxed enough to shed a tear towards the end of Gardenia, from her latest album, Wild Hope.
The new record, her fifth since 1999, sees Moore successfully reinventing herself as a more serious folk-pop singer, collaborating with everyone from her touring partner Racheal Yamagata to Canada's own Chantal Kreviazuk, while lashing out lyrically at ex-boyfriend Zach Braff (Scrubs), on such songs as Nothing That You Are, which she also performed on Saturday night, noting "sometimes guys suck."
Moore should also be applauded for learning how to play the acoustic guitar, strumming away during another new tune, Can't You Just Adore Her, although she asked her sound guy to keep the volume down.
One enthusiastic male fan said of her efforts: "Better than Britney!"
On that front, Moore covered herself up on Saturday night in a black, long-sleeved shirt, a truly unflattering green jumper and black tights, not letting any barely-there outfits make up for any lack of talent.
She gets kudos for that, and making fun of her early pop hit but ending the show with the inane but infectious Candy, even dragging out opening acts Yamagata and Chris Stills to sing and dance along with her.
Sun rating: 2.5 out of 5
