"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."
"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."
Conversations are underway to adapt West End Girl into a stage play, with Allen possibly involved. The album presents a sustained narrative depicting a marriage unraveling, drawing on events from Allen's marriage to David Harbour. The story opens with a move to New York and a bought brownstone, then shifts after an argument about returning to London to perform, and deepens into infidelity, sex addiction, substance use and dating-app horrors as the marriage becomes a toxic open relationship. West End Girl reached No 2 in the UK in 2025. Allen is performing the album in full in sold-out UK theatres in 2026 and touring the US.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]