They all bop to Lauper’s brand of fun

Her voice sounded as if it was fired from a cannon, as sharp as a set of steak knives, and its message was a singular one: Those girls, they still just wanna have fun.

But so do the boys.

And the boys who look like girls.

And so 2 1/2 decades after she first gave voice to them, Cyndi Lauper's femme-first anthems have become less gender-specific and more about the spirit of inclusiveness that has always pulsed at their core.

She bop. He bop. He-she bop. It's all the same, really.

This was the general thrust of the inaugural True Colors Tour, which kicked off at the MGM Grand Garden on Friday night.

Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho, the show was less a concert than a multigender bearhug with lots of dancing in the aisles and playful jabs at anyone who would seek to spoil the party.

"I'm just so happy Jerry Falwell's dead," Cho exulted at the beginning of the evening. "Thank God."

"Being gay is not a choice," she said later. "And it's a lot of fun."

That sentiment would underscore the evening, which was defined by wide-eyed, revelrous performances and the kind of vamping normally reserved for late-night showings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Large renderings of a pink Statue of Liberty book-ended the stage, and they spoke to the inalienable rights saluted by this tour: life, liberty and the pursuit of fabulousness.

Hot-under-the-collar nouveau cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls set the tone of the evening with a sharp, high-impact set of slashing torch songs and venomous dirges that ricocheted through the arena like gunfire.

Then came another twosome, the Indigo Girls, whose voices intertwined with one another like strands of DNA.

Playing come-as-you-are hits like "Closer to Fine" and "Galileo," their earthy folk was the only unadorned aspect of a night predicated upon ostentation.

Speaking of which, the remaining acts favored the larger-than-life over the plaintive, sequins over denim.

Debbie Harry strutted across the stage with feline grace, making it her catwalk, looking cool enough to have been chipped from ice.

Playing a clutch of new songs from her upcoming solo album, Harry sang in grand, sultry sighs on heavy breathers like "French Kissing in the USA," practically whispering her songs in your ear.

But then the guitars ramped up for "Necessary Evil," and Harry growled and grimaced like a pit bull that had chewed itself off its leash.

Still more grandiose was the ceaselessly buoyant Erasure, who revisited the decadent pleasures of '80s synth pop with an indefatigable set of arms-in-the-air dance-floor hallelujahs.

Clad in matching silver jackets and sparkling camouflage pants, the duo looked as if they were ready to wage war on subtlety.

And that they did, pounding out feel-good robot pop with seismic bass lines and plastic-sounding drums as the crowd sang every word to former club staples "A Little Respect," "Drama!" and "Chains of Love."

The night climaxed with the lady of the hour, Cyndi Lauper, who toyed with her hits, turning "She Bop" into a meditative slow burn while taking the opposite tact with "Money Changes Everything," rendering it an aggro rocker with salivating guitars.

Toward the end of her set, Lauper was joined on percussion by Rosie O'Donnell, who earlier in the night did a brief stand-up routine in which she continued her feud with Donald Trump and brought Larry King into the fray, dismissing him as a human Pez dispenser.

With O'Donnell in tow, Lauper careened through a ragged, off-kilter "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." She missed as many notes as she hit, and it would have been a sloppy finale.

Instead, Lauper was joined on stage by members of all the preceding acts (except Harry) who locked arms and delivered an ecstatic take on Erasure's "Take a Chance On Me."

Then came the song the tour was named after, "True Colors," sung defiantly, with fists in the air, a communal battle cry on a night when no one felt like a stranger.