Candace Bushnell: ‘True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex and the City’ at the London Palladium

Candace Bushnell has hit London, more specifically the London Palladium with her sell out show. For those unfamiliar with Candace she is the OG Carrie Bradshaw, writer of Sex and The City as well as numerous other New York Times bestsellers. She is now taking to the stage to ask, is there still sex in the city and take us on a whistle-stop tour of her life as she does.
With a writer like Candace you expect that she will know how to tell an interesting story however what is unknown is how she will come across in person however it is the combination of these 2 factors that makes the show a success. She is acutely aware of what the audience what to find out more about; we learn about her very own Mr Big and even Mr Bigger as well as why he was named Mr Big (no man would complain about being given that nickname she recounts). She regals the audience with a game or ‘real or not real’ as the audience try to decide just what aspects of the TV show actually happened to her and she is more than happy to indulge in other Sex and the City trivia but the show goes beyond this as she reflects on how she became her very own Mr Big. Candace’s own success story is impressive and inspiring and also one that is a testament to the power of female friendship.
The show is staged much more thoughtfully than many other autobiographical shows which often take place in interview format with a set not much more complex than a couple of chairs. Candace however turns the stage into what looks like her living room, with shoes taking pride of place on many of the cubby holes adorning the stage, and no her shoe obsession is not like Carrie’s, Carrie’s is like hers! A large screen is at the back of the stage, primed to not only play clips from Sex and the City but to show us photos from Candace’s past along side newspaper clippings and her column. The set works well as it encourages the feeling that we are having a fabulous chat with Candace at home.
There are also well thought out interludes which includes the aforementioned Real or Not Real, the occasional pause to consider the life lessons Candace has learnt along the way and the odd phone call from her girl friends (yes you guessed it) Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha. Whilst some of these interludes feel a bit wooden at times there is still an appreciation of the fact that this show goes above and beyond what is typically expected from an autobiographical show.
Candace Bushnell provides a girl powered, fun and fabulous night at the theatre, with stories that any Carrie, Miranda, Samantha or Charlotte aficionado would be thrilled to hear over a cosmo or 2, or in our case over a glass of wine in a darkened auditorium
There are further shows in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Oxford and Canterbury. To find out more visit their website.
If you like this review you might also like my review of I Should Be So Lucky, The Time Travellers Wife and Cruel Intentions.