Worlds apart from your traditional concert, the British star’s one-woman-show at the Corn Exchange saw her perform 2025’s critically-acclaimed ‘West End Girl’ – her first album in seven years – from start to finish.
Before that, however, there was the intriguing support act, Dallas Minor Trio, playing string instrumentals of Allen’s biggest hits from her previous records, karaoke-style, with the lyrics on screen.
Although this Bridgerton-esque choice of opener stirred debate among critics, it’s certainly a fun, if at times cringey, combination.
Of course, it would have been nice to hear Allen run through the likes of ‘Smile’ and ‘Not Fair’ herself, but the tour had always been billed as a warm-up to her UK arena and festival dates this summer.
By 9pm, it was time for the main event to begin: amid an intense introduction of flashing strobes, the illuminated edges of the stage elicited the energy of Charli xcx’s BRAT tour.
As Allen stepped out from behind a curtain and into a single spotlight, the applause was deafening, eventually quieting enough for her to launch into the evening’s bossa-nova-tinged titular song.
With the stripped back set gradually unveiled, the plush bedroom with minimalist decor provided a fittingly isolated backdrop for her vulnerable lyrics.
Amid the heartbreak-focused yet multi-layered narrative, there were also rave-y reprises, like the reverberating breakbeats of ‘Ruminating’ and ‘Relapse’s hedonistic spiral.
Singalongs – and, even, dancealongs – came thick and fast, too, resulting in much of the crowd getting out of their seats to do the viral ‘Nonmonogamummy’ choreography.
Overall, as a showcase in prop-led storytelling – the now-iconic receipt veil that she unravelled in during ‘4chan Stan’ got one of the night’s biggest reactions – it was utterly compelling.
Elsewhere, Allen’s vocals frequently held the room in a pin drop silence and, at the close, she was deservedly given her flowers.
While the brevity of this particular show has come under fire on social media – bar outfit switches and set changes, Allen was present for just shy of an hour, meaning the average ticket price would have equated to around £1 per minute – the vast majority in Cambridge seemed unbothered by such details.
In fact, the standing ovation that Lily received at the end said it all.