Ross missed the thrill of being a player in the entertainment industry, particularly the adrenaline rush of performing before a worshiping crowd. I would not have begrudged Miss Ross (as she likes to be called) a comeback summer tour. Of course Ross understood that a "solo tour" would have forced to her to play smaller venues, and everyone knows that Miss Ross doesn't do "smaller venues." So what to do if you are a legendary but fading star? The answer is to tour with your old group: the Supremes.

The problem with that idea, however, is that one of the original Supremes, Florence Ballard, died in 1976; and the other member, Mary Wilson, gets along with Ross about as well as Saddam Hussein gets along with the rest of the world. Wilson reportedly turned down millions to team up with Ross on this "reunion" tour. Not only did Wilson refuse Ross but so did such legitimate former lead singers of the Supremes following Lady Di's departure in 1970, Cindy Birdsong and Jean Terrell. Now Diana Ross is not one to let little details stop her diva desires. She dug up marginal former Supremes members, Lynda Lawrence and Scherrie Payne, who recorded and toured under the Supremes name way after the group had long ceased to be a viable chart act, to join her on a national "Supremes reunion" tour.

Ticket sales around the country have been deservedly sluggish for the tour. It is no wonder that Diana Ross was in good spirits when she came on stage at Madison Square Garden. While there were plenty of empty seats, it was not embarassment. Ross tried her best to recreate her glory days by coming out in a silver lame dress while sporting what looked to be a five-pound wig. To be fair, she was terrific while singing practically every one of the Supremes' biggies. She looked like she was really having fun belting out "Stop In The Name Of Love," "You Keep Me Hanging On," "Come See About Me," "You Can't Hurry Love," "Love Child," "Reflections," and the like. In recent years those great Supremes songs were sun in rushed medly form during Ross's solo concerts.

Also to her credit, Ross acknowledged that the Supremes cut some terrific records after she left them. Lynda Lawrence adequately handled my personal favorite Supreme's song, "Up The Ladder To The Roof," although she was no Jean Terrell. Scherrie Payne, however, totally botched "Stoned Love," a song that was written to get people out of their seats which, in fact, did nothing of the sort.

For a veteran entertainer who knows how to work a crowd, Diana Ross did not conclude this show very well. Instead of closing with a flourish, she limped to the finish line with the boring ballad "The Best Years Of My Life" and a mellow arrangement of the Four Tops' "Reach Out." Ross is a lot of things, but Cassandra Wilson is not one of them. Even stranger was the fact that she finished with a ten-minute cover of Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem, "I Will Survive."

Mary Wilson, Jean Terrell, and Cindy Birdsong knew what they were doing after all.