The Janet Jackson hit parade has slowed to a crawl, and younger pop singers have usurped the 44-year-old icon’s iron grip on the charts. If there’s a single memory about her that sticks out over the last decade for folks with only passing interest in pop culture, it’s not her acting in “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.” It has to do with a certain overblown wardrobe malfunction as she performed at halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl.
       
        But there’s no better way for a performer to remind the world that she’s still kicking than a tightly-choreographed greatest hits show, and that’s exactly what Jackson delivered Monday in the first of three sold-out concerts at the Chicago Theatre. She doesn’t tour much anymore, so for those in attendance this was clearly an event – many of the fans looked as though they were part of the singer’s original “Rhythm Nation” in the late ‘80s.
       
        “I want to be the one in control,” Jackson sang at the outset, and the set had a precision, I’ve-got-something-to-prove authority.  Crucially, the concert was less like a soul-less video -- the impression left by so many Jackson extravaganzas in the past -- and more like the work of a still-vital artist determined to showcase her subtle strengths.

Janet Jackson: The singer says she will focus on performing songs from her 2009 compilation, “Number Ones,” which includes 35 hits stretching back to the beginning of her career in the ‘80s, 7:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., $50, $75, $100, $150, $200; ticketmaster.com.

greg@gregkot.com

It’s a trend -- pop divas playing smaller venues or canceling tours as a recession-racked concert industry tries to regroup. The latest singer to downsize her ambitions is Janet Jackson, who announced Monday that she will headline two shows March 7-8 at the Chicago Theatre as part of a 35-city tour.

To entice fans back into the seats, Jackson says she will focus on performing songs from her 2009 compilation, “Number Ones,” which includes 35 hits stretching back to the beginning of her career in the ‘80s.

Jackson is framing the shows as an opportunity to get “as up close and personal as possible” with her fans. That could be true, but it could also be code for “I can’t sell as many tickets as I used to.” Jackson’s career has been in slow decline in recent years, and her first tour in seven years in 2008 was unable to sell out the Allstate Arena. Like Mariah Carey and Kelly Clarkson, she has scaled down from her previous arena-sized level to play theaters. Christina Aguilera canceled her scheduled amphitheater tour last summer.   

Jackson tickets ($50, $75, $100, $150, $200) go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Chicago Theatre box office and Ticketmaster.

greg@gregkot.com