1 day ago
3
Lily Allen has said she is in discussions over adapting her hit album West End Girl into a play, possibly for the West End itself.
Speaking on The Tonight Show in the US, host Jimmy Fallon said: “In London, they’re trying to make West End Girl into a play.”
“That’s true,” Allen replied. When asked if she was involved, Allen said: “I might be. The ink is not dry … But, you know, I’m definitely having some conversations with people about it. It’s very exciting.”
West End Girl would certainly lend itself to a dramatisation: the album is a sustained piece of storytelling that depicts a marriage and its unravelling.
Allen has said it is “inspired by what went on” in her marriage to US actor David Harbour, known for his roles in Stranger Things and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel,” she told Vogue.
The album opens with the happy scene of someone moving – as Allen did in real life – to New York, where she and Harbour bought a house together (“Now I’m looking at houses with four or five floors / And you’ve found us a brownstone, said ‘you want it? It’s yours’”).
But an argument over returning to London to perform in a play – which Allen also did in real life, appearing in 2:22 A Ghost Story – sours the rest of the opening title track, and things get much worse in the ensuing songs: infidelity, sex addiction, substance use and the horrors of dating apps are explored as the marriage becomes a toxic open relationship.
West End Girl, Allen’s first album since 2018, reached No 2 in the UK charts and has been one of the pop cultural moments of 2025. Allen is performing the album in full in a sold out run in UK theatres in 2026, then touring it in arenas.
The album has also found a sizeable audience in the US: Allen is performing on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and embarking on a US tour in April.
English (US)