ShareLily Allen performing her West End Girl Tour at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Saturday 14th March 2026.
Review by Kevin Cooper
Lily Allen brought her latest hit album West End Girl to the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday night, and delivered a one woman show which focused solely on her new material, and featured a theatrical performance that saw only her on the stage, framed by a deliberately artificial looking stage setting.
With a set list that was devoid of any of her previous hits, the only nod to them was made when the Dallas Minor Trio took to the stage to provide Bridgerton-esque cello backing as they quite beautifully performed the likes of The Fear, 22, Alfie and Hard Out There when it was left to the sold out crowd to oddly sing along to the lyrics which were beamed onto a screen.
Following a brief interval Allen appeared statuesque from behind a curtain for opener West End Girl before the stage was opened to reveal a boudoir, allowing each of the albums fourteen songs to be delivered completely differently with the aid of projections, costume changes, props and abrupt set changes thanks to stage hands who seamlessly redesigned the set turning West End Girl into a one woman show of sorts rather than a traditional pop concert.
Whilst the show has attracted criticisms such as no between song banter with the crowd, the lack of a live band and backing dancers, the crowd were mesmerised for the whole fifty-five minutes that Allen was on stage. Pussy Palace, the most listened to song on the album, allowed the set to escalate and had the crowd belting back the lyrics as they did for the double punch of Tennis and Madeline.
The performance art of the show was no better displayed than during her rendition of Relapse but one of the low points saw Allen rooted to the spot for Nonmonogamummy as she delivered her own TikTok friendly choreography with varying levels of conviction and her heartbreaking ballad Just Enough was performed behind a beaded curtain in near darkness which made her delivery a little difficult to see.
Other key ballads such as the desperate Beg For Me and the sobering Let You W/in came at the end of the set before she ended on a high with the somewhat optimistic Fruityloop.
Delivering a very restrained show, Allen will be performing at the much bigger Motorpoint Arena in June and it will be interesting to see how it translates because it was hard to describe it as a concert, it was theatre through and through.