Lily Allen’s biggest headline tour yet is almost here, and she has added another intriguing piece to a show that is already steering well clear of the standard arena-pop formula.

Custom cello ensemble Dallas Minor Sextet, formerly known as Dallas Minor Trio, will open all seven dates of Lily Allen performs West End Girl when the tour reaches New Zealand and Australia later this month.

Allen isn’t approaching West End Girl as a collection of songs to be scattered through a greatest-hits set. Instead, she performs her fifth album from beginning to end and in sequence, with the production conceived as a continuous piece of theatre. Allen stands alone at its centre as the songs become individual scenes within the larger story.

That makes for a particularly interesting arena proposition. West End Girl is Allen’s first album in seven years, a 14-song record built around her move to New York and deliberately blurring the line between fact and fiction. Rather than making the show bigger simply because the rooms are bigger, the production pulls the focus tightly onto Allen and the narrative.

The tour begins at Auckland’s Spark Arena on October 21 before hitting Brisbane on October 23. Sydney gets two nights at TikTok Entertainment Centre on October 25 and 26, followed by two Rod Laver Arena shows in Melbourne on October 28 and 29, before the run finishes at Perth’s RAC Arena on November 1.

After acclaimed runs through the UK, Europe and North America, Australian audiences finally get to see what Allen has built around West End Girl. With Dallas Minor Sextet now opening proceedings, this is shaping up less like a conventional arena concert and more like a night of theatre that happens to be taking place inside some very large rooms.

Final tickets and tour information via frontiertouring.com/lilyallen

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