Lily Allen review: West End Girl evokes marital collapse at arena scale

The arena presentation is a scaled-up version of the theatre show built around Allen’s album West End Girl, which partly dramatises the breakdown of her four-year marriage to David Harbour. It opens with the Dallas Minor Trio playing instrumental versions of older hits, warming the crowd and offering a rare chance to cheerily bellow The Fear or Fuck You (“very much”) with several thousand people.

For the second act Allen performs alone, mounting a theatrical, hour-long run-through of the new material. Looking resplendent – like a modern Ronette – she bounds into the title track, then takes a phone call and becomes tearful. The songs unflinchingly trace the collapse: his alleged desire for an open marriage (“we had an arrangement / it had to be with strangers”), her self-doubt and the discovery of incriminating texts (“Who the fuck is Madeline?”).

lily allen, west end, david harbour, marital collapse, arena show, theatre show, the fear, fuck you, incriminating texts, madeline