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By Steve Jones, USA TODAY CHICAGO -- Whitney Houston wasn't onstage 10 minutes before she had the crowd at Aire Crown Theatre trying to raise the roof. The cause: two pulsating jams sandwiched around her gritty hit Heartbreak Hotel. Tuesday, on the first stop of her world tour (<PICTURE: stars 4 out of four), she spent the next two hours roving down memory lane, holding church and bringing things back up to date. A relaxed and playful Houston took the audience -- which, before she took the stage, was treated to a classy showing by R&B quartet 112 -- through a full-range of emotions during her 20-song performance. Between impassioned ballads and exuberant dance numbers, she teased the audience, goofed around with the band and even joked about her often-scrutinized marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Clearly, she was having a great time, and the audience happily went along for the ride. Even with an entourage that included four dancers, four singers and seven musicians, the focus always remained squarely on Houston. She eschewed the usual diva prerogative of displaying the extent of her wardrobe, changing only a couple of times, including once before her encore, and packed in as many hits as possible. About half the set list was devoted to her newest album, My Love Is Your Love, and near the end of the show she sang the title song with the help of 6-year-old daughter Bobbi Christina, who egged the audience on with enthusiastic cries to "clap your hands." And, keeping things in the family spirit, Houston introduced her mother, singer Cissy Houston, and thanked her for instilling her with a love of God after bringing the crowd to its feet with I Love the Lord and I Go to the Rock from The Preacher's Wife soundtrack. About midway through the show, when Houston briefly departed the stage for her first costume change, brother Gary Houston (one of her backup singers) filled the gap with an energetic rendition of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. That's where Houston took the audience when she returned, revving the crowd up with the pulsating I'm Every Woman and I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). But what it seemed the crowd was waiting for was the ballad I Will Always Love You, which she subtly built to an explosive climax. She left the stage to a thunderous, five-minute standing ovation amid chants for her return. She reappeared with daughter Kristina in tow and, after their My Love Is Your Love "duet," sent everybody home charged up to the driving beats of Step by Step.
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