The Britney Spears Circus Tour is mere hours from its kickoff in New Orleans, and sources from within camp Spears say the show is ready to go on. The Spears entourage arrived in Britney’s home state over the weekend, including her ex-husband and her two sons. But Britney is hyper-focused on rehearsing the show and is channeling her nerves into practicing dance routines. Because there is no way in hell Brit-Brit is going to be singing live.

Britney Spears kicks off her world tour — her first concert tour in fives years — tonight in New Orleans. What can fans expect?

“You can expect spectacular-ness,” her manager Larry Rudolph said on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show Tuesday. “We ran the show twice yesterday until 2 or 3 in the morning, and it was amazing … perfect. She goes full- speed the whole show – about an hour-and-a-half. It’s pretty intense.”

“There’s only one time where it slows down – with two ballads in the middle,” he added. “This is a full-blown, full-out Britney Spears show. It is a pop extravaganza. It is everything everybody expects from her — and more!”

Rudolph went on to say that the Circus tour might be Spears’ “best one” yet.

“There are so many highlights to this show. The costumes are amazing,” he said. “It’s the biggest production out there and maybe the biggest production ever launched. We have circus performers, aerialists, dancers, martial artists — we have all kinds of things.”

Spears is “a little” nervous, he added.

“She has this nervous energy. She’s got this way of channeling it,” said Rudolph. “I’ve said to her before that if you were on a football team and you were going to the Super Bowl, they’d want you to be their quarterback. When it comes to game day, nobody brings it like she does. She takes that nervous energy and turns it into the most amazing show.”

Her average tour day: “She’ll probably sleep late … probably get up, have breakfast, and we’ll leave to go to the venue at around 4-4:30, spend a little time, relax, hair and makeup around 6 or 7 and stage thereafter.”

Having sons Sean Preston and Jayden James around “helps a lot,” Rudolph said. “The boys give her amazing inspiration and amazing strength. It’s been a great thing watching them with her throughout this whole process.”

A source tells Usmagazine.com that her ex Kevin Federline “has rented an apartment in New Orleans, as this will be his and the kids’ base during the southern leg of the tour.”

[From Us Weekly]

An advanced copy of Britney’s set list from the show reveals that she will perform songs mostly from her last two CD’s, although it’s rumored she will close the show with “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” Given how much is riding on this show, she has every reason to be nervous. But let’s hope “nervous energy” isn’t code for “whacked out on pills and Red Bull.” Seriously, though – as much as I believe Britney isn’t ready for the grueling schedule of a world tour, I do hope it’s a personal and commercial success for her. Of course, the big winner here, regardless of whether the concerts go well, is Kevin Federline. He’s getting a mind-boggling $5k a week just to follow Britney around and pretend to look after their kids.