  Gwen Stefani in one of the several outfits she wore during her sold-out show at the Air Canada Centre last night. (Dave Abel, Sun Media)
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Gwen Stefani took her fans on a really sweet escape last night at the Air Canada Centre.
The ultra-blond pop-dance star and stylemaker, who’s on the road in support of her second solo album, The Sweet Escape, opened her hour-and-35-minute show with a prison-themed homage that saw Stefani emerge from a gold jail cell dressed in black-and-white-striped, sequined hotpants.
The evening actually began with Stefani’s so-called Harajuku Girls, originally introduced on her first solo effort, Love.Angel. Music. Baby, running through the seats on the floor pursued by police officers while Elvis Costello’s Watching the Detectives blared.
They all later turned out to be Stefani’s eight remarkable dancers, who joined her and opening act, rapper-singer Akon, on stage for the title track from The Sweet Escape, which provided a rousing start to the night.
That jail cell was later turned into a safe so that a robbery could be committed during Rich Girl, from L.A.M.B., and Stefani could update her outfit with a sequined black cape.
By the third song, Yummy, she was decked out in a silver sequined apron and white chef’s hat perched on her ponytailed head, while she pranced on a moving sidewalk with two of her six backing musicians. (One of whom was David Bowie’s exquisite bassist and backup singer, Gail Ann Dorsey.)
Stefani is nothing if not a fashion plate.
For example, she updated the kimono into a mini-dress with white tank top and black bra, for 4 In the Morning, Luxurious and Early Winter.
A bigger production also seemed to be a priority this time out with a large video screen as a backdrop that split into two, and onto which both sleek lights and images were projected.
Particularly effective was the geisha dancing in a snowstorm during Early Winter, even if it seemed like Stefani had ripped a major page out of Madonna’s handbook, while Dorsey took over on lead vocals as the song came to a dramatic end.
Also good were the blue sky, clouds, pink sequined curtains and goats that accompanied Wind It Up, inspired by The Sound of Music, and another dazzling pair of sequined red shorts for the equally appealing Danger Zone , Wonderful Life and Hollaback Girl, the latter complete with a large gold “G” in bright lights hanging above the stage and two musicians forming a horn section.
Even more impressive was the mom-of-one’s flat stomach, showed off to great effect in a midriff-baring shirt during Now That You Got It and Don’t Get Twisted/Breakin’ Up, and when Stefani ran back to a smaller B-stage and eventually into the upper seats with part of her band to perform Cool.
All those bells and whistles aside, Stefani also had a nice stripped down encore, beginning with The Real Thing, with Dorsey again on harmonies, before cranking up the energy, costumes — more hotpants! — and effects again for the show-ending crowdpleaser What You Waiting For?
Akon, the Senegal-born, Atlanta-based rapper, and former convict (on car theft charges), earlier opened his 35-minute-set with Shake Down from his breakout sophomore disc, Konvicted, with the help of two female dancers dressed as police officers.
Is it just me, or where is Wentworth Miller — Prison Break’s hunk — when you need him?
Meanwhile, the screaming, mostly female fans in attendance seemed as psyched about seeing him as they were Stefani, as they sang along to hits like I Wanna Love You, Smack That, and Don’t Matter.
In fact, they roared their approval when the muscled performer stripped down to just a white tank top and eventually discarded it later in his show.
“Where my ladies at?” said the married, father of three, who got into trouble earlier this month when he did some dirty dancing with an underage girl during a concert in Trinidad.
In fact, the incident led Verizon to pull out of the Stefani tour as a sponsor, but she stuck by Akon and didn’t yank him off her road trip.
Maybe it’s because his heart’s in the right place?
When Akon, backed by a bassist, drummer and turntablist, discarded the yellow track suit jacket he was earlier wearing, he had a T-shirt on that said, “Believe in the future of Africa.”
Also opening last night was brash but funny British MC Lady Sovereign, the self-proclaimed “biggest midget in the game,” who is one of the biggest music stories of the last year in her native England.
The pigtailed singer rapped, burped and swore her way through a 20-minute set that highlighted songs from her 2006 debut, Public Warning, including the title track and her breakout out single, Love Me Or Hate Me, plus a cover of the Sex Pistols’ Pretty Vacant.
