As a truly deafening mass of whoops and hollers ring out around the London Palladium - Lily Allen picking up a giant bouquet of flowers at the end of her nightly communal romantic exorcism - it’s hard not to think of the exceedingly mixed reviews this show has so far received and wonder: what more did people want or expect?
Some criticisms levelled at this initial run of Allen’s eye-poppingly candid, career-reinstating album West End Girl have taken aim at its structure, with the opening half hour given over to a karaoke-style crowd sing-along of the old hits played, Bridgerton-style, by string players the Dallas Minor Trio. Perhaps her decision to label it as Act I of the show positions it differently if we’re getting down to semantics (and what’s sexier than semantics?), but it’s essentially a support act tailored to a theatrical setting. At the first night of her hometown run, the unsurprisingly female-majority crowd - an admirable amount clutching pints of wine - give it some welly to Not Fair and The Fear like a merrily tipsy girls’ choir.
