www.broadwayworld.com: Lily Allen is now on the road with her concert tour for West End Girl, her critically acclaimed album that arrived at the end of last year. The live show sees the performer present an elaborate extravaganza that taps into Allen's theatricality and that of her album, which has a definite narrative.
2 comments:
I think it’s interesting that there’s going to be a theatrical adaptation of a studio album on the west end. I wonder if it’s going to be like a jukebox musical, or if it’s a passion project for Lily Allen herself. And if it were to go to broadway, would Lily Allen simply move the operation to New York and continue in a new location? Or would things change?
I also think this studio album turned musical will add more traction to the argument that broadway is currently just revivals and adaptations. I actually disagree with this because I think this is a creative idea, and the source material is already theatrical in itself. Obviously, Allen has a lot of experience in theatre outside of just mainstream stuff, but I wonder who her collaborators are on this project. Again, they have not revealed much about the project, but it really does seem like something that would bring people who would not typically seek theater out into the medium, since it stems from a more popular medium.
Lily Allen looks like she is thriving right now, and I’m genuinely happy for her, I just don’t necessarily love this new album or her tour. The music seemed very surface level and had a very I would hear this in Marshalls vibe. She can certainly act; however, not every album that has a concept needs to be forced into what I consider to be a theatrical “extravaganza.” The boundaries between a concert and a theatre production feel to be blurred significantly by what I’ve seen so far. I was really disappointed that she’s going to skip performing most of her famous tracks in order to protect the “story” told on her upcoming album! I enjoy both theatre and pop music, but I don’t need to combine them together to the point of such self-indulgence. She is clearly experimenting and doing something creative, but I would like to see a more traditional setlist and a band performing, than a staged apartment with the music being played back.
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