Lily Allen takes her diaristic album ‘West End Girl’ – all about a failed open-marriage – and turns it into a clever and cathartic production on stage

By creammagazine, November 5, 2026

If Taylor Swift’s exes ought to worry due to the artist’s airing of dirty laundry from her relationships with men, the exes of Lily Allen have better really panic. Just like Swift often does, Allen has made an album that outlines all the things her partner (actually husband), actor David Harbour, did wrong during their open-marriage arrangement . Yes, you did read “open-marriage arrangement” there, and that’s what makes this particular episode of dirty laundry-airing quite complicated.

Lily didn’t just jot her thoughts down to form the songs that make up her latest album West End Girl, she’s gone and created an entire theatrical production about it, and toured it across the globe. Talk about revenge best served…

What I’m not sure of is just how ‘open’ was this open-marriage arrangement, and if it was open to any degree, why then would Lily air so many grievances about the situation? Still, a woman scorned… and all of that. And, hey, it means we got to see a very different, rather exciting show.

Suffice to say, whatever shit David has put Lily through, she’s been clever enough to make some art and money out of it. Her entire show, witnessed last weekend in Perth at RAC Arena, consists of songs from the album West End Girl, and just a bit of chat occasionally in between.

Lily looked very comfortable dressed in shiny dresses, and underwear and a sheer nightie halfway through, singing songs about what hurt Harbour had caused. Following some attention-grabbing electric shock effects on the big screen, Lily appears on stage, demurely dressed at first in a silver dress complete with big bow at the back. It was a cutesy aesthetic that was short-lived since there was a heck of a shitstorm to come.

The title track that opens the album also opens her show, and it charts Allen’s move to New York, returning to the UK to perform in a play (on the West End, naturally) and reluctantly agreeing to an open marriage, albeit casually, over the phone. Big mistake, girl! But like I said, the shitstorm that followed has made for a great tell-tale album and some good money.

Now, Lily is a great singer-songwriter but she’s not exactly the greatest singer. In fact, you could call a lot of her style of singing ‘spoken word’, or indeed rapping. Ever since we heard ‘Smile’ and its ska-inflections, we’ve been used to hearing Lily kind of talk more than sing, and she stands out because of it, and we like it, so don’t think I’m begrudging her here.

Anyway, Lily speaks/raps and occasionally sings across the other tracks from the album: Ruminating, which explores her overthinking (and kudos to her for getting a word like ‘ruminating’ into a song!); Sleepwalking, which acknowledges the gaslighting she experienced; Tennis, which captures a tense family occasion during which she discovers a text message from a woman named Madeline on her husband’s phone and demands answers; Madeline – the girl she then confronts, giving her a good dose of how-can-you-trust-anything-that-fucker-says; and Relapse, which details Allen’s coping with vulnerability and fear during a phase of sobriety.

Each of these numbers is delivered very well, and it’s a nice touch whenever Allen uses one of the many furnishings or props on stage to get further messages across – a trip to the fridge to puff on a chilled vape; the discovery of sex toys used by the man in question; and so on.

That brings us to Pussy Palace, one of the more laidback tracks on the album (and the video for it, I love, with Lily dressed as a nun smoking cigarettes and showing off killer Prada-like heels). For this song, which requires some rather high pitches come chorus time, Lily delivers the notes and messages very clearly.

A show like this is perfect for an artist like Lily. As artists, shall we say, ‘mature’, they tend to not want to run around prancing and dancing on stage, especially when it comes to a lengthy world tour with plenty of dates dotted across the globe. Lily had it lucky that she was able to turn her disastrous relationship into a full production, and very lucky that most of the pondering and drama she went to happened while she was laying on a sofa or bed, in a hotel room or living room. These domestic scenarios give her the chance to lounge about on stage, her voice resting for the next big song.

About seven other songs round out the show, including one which echoes the lyric “It’s not me, it’s you” – a phrase once used as an album title for the artist.

All up, the West End Girl show was a nice one to check off the must-see list. It captured an era in the artist’s life that not only really shook things up for her, but gave her the ammunition to get out there and try to heal through the obvious catharsis that is this entire production.

Kudos, girl, for turning tragedy into something glorious, and thanks for being so frank with us. Now, ideas for the next album… But this time, please, don’t go too easy on the open-relationship thing.

Antonino Tati