In the jillion-dollar, mega production that wowed a packed crowd at Tampa's Ice Palace on Tuesday, Spears was the embodiment of a three-dimensional, stage-chewing dream -- materializing here, popping out of a trap-door there and leaving an open-mouthed crowd wondering what could possibly be in store next.

Actually, the first 30 minutes or so of her tour show played like a dream, turning songs from her three albums into a loosely woven narrative of a little, but all-grown-up girl alternately haunted by forces out of her control and elated by the fortune of incredible dreams come true.

The "stage" was less a proscenium platform than a misshapen, key-shaped collection of trap-doors and staging areas that ran the length of the floor, while offering its charge all manner of performing opportunities.

On opening number "Oops! . . . I Did It Again," Spears appeared on the bottom of a metal mini-stage that rose up like a moat's drawbridge to reveal the singer strapped in as if on a torture table.

That was before she laid down at the end of an extended catwalk and disappeared into it to end the song.

Such effects kept the otherwise amazing strobe lights on "(You Drive Me) Crazy" and the lasers on "Overprotected" relatively pedestrian in comparison.

Then there was the giant jewel box whose lid opened to offer Spears decked out in a ballroom gown before blowing open in a sea of confetti, and the drawbridge that lifted off the stage during "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (her cover of the old Joan Jett tune), and turned into a metalloid magic-carpet, taking her and her eight dancers to the other end of the arena.

Want more? Don't forget the cartoon-like pink convertible Spears and another dancer rode down the main catwalk, while equally colorful houses dotted the main stage area like Munchkin City.

It was all enough to make you lose any interest in whether the star was actually singing the lines to her songs or merely lip-syncing them as she has sometimes been accused of doing.

The point in Tuesday's show, however, was that it really didn't matter, given the sheer money's worth of its bombast no doubt enjoyed by the 15,204 in attendance at the 19,000-seat arena.

Her voice sounded great . . . and why wouldn't it? The show looked cool and simultaneously raised the bar for all show-stopping productions to come.

By night's end, when her dress was ripped off for "I'm A Slave 4 U" and during sole encore " . . . Baby One More Time" -- when a giant hologram of a woman preceded Spear's own reappearance on stage -- you almost didn't notice that the whole thing only took 80 minutes to present its 15 songs.

But so what? Spears, the hero of millions of star-eyed little girls everywhere, came to Tampa and conquered Tuesday night. And most of those witnessing the spectacle of it all couldn't have been happier.

Bill Dean can be reached at bill.dean@theledger.com or 863-802-7527.