Live Review | Lily Allen @ TikTok Entertainment Centre, Sydney

Lily Allen brings West End Girl to Sydney in a bold theatrical performance that balances emotional honesty with her signature wit

You don’t have to be a pop culture insider to know why Lily Allen’s ‘West End Girl’ came to be. The tabloid rumours surrounding her marriage that circulated 18 months ago were transformed by Lily into an unapologetic, bold, tell-all album, exploring the psychological effects a marriage breakdown, and the actions of one man, can have on a person. But Lily, as ever, delivers the record with her signature London charm and wit, resulting in a perfectly balanced listen that blends humour with raw emotion.

On Sunday evening, almost exactly a year after the album’s release, it was time for Lily Allen to retell that story in the Southern Hemisphere and bring West End Girl to Sydney.

Firstly, Allen hadn’t toured this side of the world in seven years, so if you were expecting to hear her perform the classics, you may have been disappointed. That said, if you arrived early, you would have been greeted by the Dallas Minor Sextet, who quietly took their places on stage before working their way through some of Lily Allen’s best-loved previous work.

With lyrics displayed on the screens flanking the stage, the result was one big, 9,000-person sing-along. It was a fun nod to her earlier catalogue, although there was a slight pang of disappointment that we weren’t getting to hear Allen sing those songs herself.

Nevertheless, this is Lily Allen Performing West End Girl, so on to the main event. The lights dim, and the stage flickers into life. A crash of noise, flashing lights and the words ‘West End Girl’ flaring into life in neon pink set the scene. Beneath a spotlight, rich velvet curtains reveal a smiling Lily Allen as she steps out in a beautiful, bow-tied dress.

It’s clear from the get-go that this isn’t a concert; it’s a theatrical performance. The stage design is lavish, with sections cleverly rearranged throughout the show and playful props for Lily to interact with. Every element feels just as important to the storytelling as Lily’s words.

Lily launches straight into ‘West End Girl’, the title track that delves into the phone call that first introduced the idea of an open marriage. Lily tears up as she sinks down beside a landline, fully immersed in the character. She pulls at the heartstrings of the crowd, and I can only imagine how it must feel to re-enact such a personal phone call over and over again on stage.

The show works through the West End Girl tracklist song by song, with multiple outfit changes along the way. As Lily delivers the line, “I know you’ve made me your Madonna, I want to be your whore”, her dress slips into a more sultry evening look, before she takes to ‘Tennis’ in a sheer gown. Every step and movement feels carefully curated, with the next action or visual detail never far away as Lily commands the stage and plays out the breakdown of her former marriage.

But, of course, while the album takes us on an emotional rollercoaster, Lily still injects plenty of fun into the performance. ‘Pussy Palace’ and ‘Nonmonogamummy’ bring some comically sized sex-toy props into the mix, and Lily delivers a cheeky wink during her playful “I’m just trying to be open” dance moves.

There’s plenty to enjoy, but the show is a short one, clocking in at under an hour. As a result, it feels as though we don’t quite have enough time to experience the full highs and lows that the theatrical production and the album’s subject matter promise. Just as the emotional journey begins to settle in, it’s over.

Lily Allen’s West End Girl walks a clever line between emotional honesty and charming wit. However, the live performance occasionally falls short of that balance, feeling three or four songs shy of giving its audience enough time to fully invest in and absorb the emotional journey Lily has invited us on.