Lily Allen has defended the world tour of her album West End Girl after fans complained about feeling short-changed by the 55-minute shows that have no crowd interaction. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Allen is currently on the UK leg of the world tour for the album that was inspired by her divorce from actor David Harbour. The show sees her perform the 45-minute album in its entirety, without speaking to the crowd or performing any of her back catalogue.
The singer has likened the show to theatre rather than a conventional concert, telling Elle last year that it would "feel more like a Broadway-esque one-woman show, with really interesting set design. There'll be no band and no dancers."
But some fans are complaining that the 55-minute show is too short to justify the ticket prices. Tickets for her shows at London's O2 Arena have been about £100, while tickets for the upcoming Australian leg range from $110 to $400 for VIP packages.
"I know that it said 'Lily Allen performs West End Girl' but it didn't say 'Lily Allen ONLY performs West End Girl' very clearly," one attender of her first O2 Arena show wrote in a two-star review published to Ticketmaster. "It cost me £100 per ticket for maybe an hour and 10 minute show with lengthy costume changes in between and no speaking at all … this has got to be the shortest and least value for money concert I've ever been to."
Another called it "disappointing", adding: "Although her performance was excellent. She was on stage for less than one hour. She could have sang some of her old songs herself. If I'd have known this before I would not have purchased the expensive tickets."
Critics and fans have also been split about Allen's decision to not appear in the first half of her own show, instead having a string ensemble play 10 of her older hits while the crowd is encouraged to sing along, karaoke-style.
Journalist Rupert Hawksley shared his critical assessment of her O2 Arena show on Sunday on X, which prompted Allen herself to respond.
"Lily Allen at The O2. No support act, arrived on stage at 9:10pm, all wrapped up by 10pm, not one word to the audience, £86 [US$114, AU$165] to sit in the gods," Hawksley wrote.
While Allen's performance was "brilliant", he wrote, "it can't be right to charge that much for an hour, late on Sunday night."
Allen responded directly, saying the show was as it has "always been advertised".
"It's my artistic choice not to talk to the audience, the fourth wall helps with the storytelling. Most people find it to be effective," she wrote.
She said she was late on stage at the show Hawksley attended because "my tights were laddered and I had to change them".
"I don't want anyone to feel ripped off," she added. "Everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can, and I'm extremely proud of it."
In reply to Allen, Hawksley acknowledged the show had been presented as advertised, but wrote: "But no support act and not even a 'thank you so much for coming' was a bit weird."
Allen joked in reply: "I'd happily concede that I'm a bit weird, though."
The tour was initially launched in intimate theatrical venues in the UK, but more dates were added at bigger venues, including arenas. Allen will head to the US in September, then Australia and New Zealand in October and November, where she will play only large venues.
Some fans online have even encouraged others to skip the first half while the string ensemble, named the Dallas Minor Trio after one of her songs, play instrumental covers of her back catalogue.
"Staging hits like this might be cute as a 10-minute-long introduction, but as the entire, 45-minute first half of a much-anticipated comeback show it risks testing the patience of the audience; a compromise between committing to a full album show and avoiding accusations of not playing the hits," critic Claire Biddles wrote for the Guardian, in a two-star review of the tour's opening night in March.
Other fans and critics, however, have agreed with Allen's framing of her tour as theatre. Variety called it "a captivating, even thrilling, exercise in emotional world-building", adding: "It could not be any more of a theater piece if she'd booked the Walter Kerr for six weeks."