Intimate monologue or performance art? The singer’s recent gigs give a tantalising idea of what a stage adaptation of her album might look like
‘T
his conversation’s too big for a phone call,” sings Lily Allen on her new album, West End Girl. Maybe those conversations are too big for its 14 tracks as Allen is in discussions about turning the album’s painful account of uncovering infidelity into a play. The singer has just completed a tour of theatre venues, performing West End Girl in its entirety, culminating in last weekend’s shows at the London Palladium. Those gigs give a tantalising idea of what a fully fledged stage adaptation could look like.
Allen’s semi-autobiographical album has theatre at its core – even the songs’ visualisers feature pierrot costumes and a St Martin’s Lane marquee with a tongue-in-cheek nod to The Importance of Being Earnest. The plot includes her being cast in a West End production (mirroring her assured debut in 2:22: A Ghost Story in 2021) and while she is hardly the first pop star to do theatre, it’s still refreshing to hear the line “I got the lead in a play!” on an album.
West End Girl presents not a backstage drama but the implosion of a marriage in forensic detail. And it does so through songs that reveal a mastery of dialogue, characterisation and narrative. Allen has said she was inspired by the cinematic storytelling of Mike Skinner on the Streets’ album A Grand Don’t Come for Free; West End Girl can be considered a theatrical equivalent.
