Braxton not in sync

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006 | 7:08 a.m.

What: "Toni Braxton: Revealed"

Where: Flamingo Las Vegas Showroom

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays

Tickets: $69-$109; www.showtickets.com

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***

Given time, multiple Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton could have one of the best shows in town.

The sultry siren of R&B has everything going for her - a voice that reaches inside you and caresses your soul; gorgeous features; an engaging personality; excellent backup band, singers and dancers; and the unflagging support of the Flamingo Las Vegas.

But after a month, "Toni Braxton: Revealed" continues to be plagued with some pesky problems, both technical and artistic.

Mikes keyed too softly sometimes make it difficult to understand her words.

Sometimes, her words are overpowered by the band.

But the biggest let-down is the lip-syncing.

Braxton emerges in dramatic fashion befitting a star, rising at the back of the stage as sexy as all get-out and descending a set of stairs lip-syncing to one of her earliest megahits, "You're Making Me High" (from her 1996 album "Secrets"), which practically defined her as one of the sexiest vocalists of her generation.

She continues to lip-sync through her second song, "Take This Ring."

Apparently, since she performs a little choreography during these two numbers, it was felt she couldn't dance and sing at the same time; so it was decided to bring in the backup recordings.

The trouble is, she doesn't do that much dancing and actually seems uncomfortable doing it.

And she isn't very good at lip-syncing - after weeks of performing she seems even more uncomfortable pretending to sing her own songs than she does dancing. Her effort is half-hearted, at best. There are times when she simply moves her lips without even bothering to mouth the actual words. Other times she mouths the words, but they aren't in sync with what the audience is hearing.

After the first two numbers and the lip-syncing have been dispatched, the show begins to get its legs.

Her legion of fans isn't going to be bothered by the initial missteps. They are there to see and hear one of the most successful R&B artists in the world, with six Grammys to her credit.

Most of the audience seems to know all of the more than 20 songs on the set list, more than half of which come from her first two albums. Among the songs on the list are "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" and "Another Sad Love Song," both from her self-titled 1993 debut album, and "Unbreak My Heart," from the '96 follow-up "Secrets."

Once Braxton begins interacting with her fans, she comes alive, loosening up and becoming more at ease in the setting, and the audience loves her even more.

She brings guests up to dance with her.

She invites a fan to join her onstage and to sing one of her songs while she listens.

She swoops down into the audience and flirts.

Braxton is vivacious and full of life, an entertainer who seems to sincerely adore her fans and enjoys sharing time with them, even revealing painful things in her life, such as the recent discovery that one of her two sons is autistic.

One of her biggest fans is Flamingo President Don Marrandino.

While Marrandino agrees there are a few minor technical problems with the show, he believes he has a hit on his hands, based upon the number of fans packing the showroom every night (more than 90 percent of the seats are full each night during the slowest part of the summer) and advance ticket sales.

"We are continuing to work out the technical problems, and every day the show gets better," he says. "I could not be more confident that we made a great decision."