Sex and the City – Candace Bushnell at the London Palladium for one night only – 7 February 2024 - and then on tour. 5*****: William Russell.

Sex and the City – Candace Bushnell at the London Palladium for one night only – 7 February 2024 - and then on tour.

5*****: William Russell.

“Candace comes to town and holds a fabulous hen night.”

It was probably the biggest hen night London has ever seen – there were a few cocks in the audience but probably not of the kind to satisfies the chickens around them. It mattered not. Candace – Joan Rivers reincarnated – established an instant rapport with the audience, regaled them with tales of her sex life, lessons learned, life with the real Mr Big and wore some fabulous shoes. At sixty plus the lady looks about 42, is undeniably glamorous, and wore a couple of ghastly gowns to show off her admirable figure. It was all good if not very clean fun. No eggs were laid. She did not, however, reveal any secrets of behind the camera life on the television shows based on her book where the hens appear to have fallen out and there was no mention that the actress who played Carrie Bradshaw, her alter ego, was actually performing in a play in the West End not a mile away. Candace sells Candace. One had to admire her chutzpah – she does not sell her readers short and amazingly, since she is a writer not an actress, she did not sell her audience short. Candace has been there, done that and is happy to kiss and tell – the hens gobbled it all up, knocked back the drinks they had brought in with them, queued for the ladies at the interval, and tottered out into the night on their heels sated. Candace alias Carrie Bradshaw had come, been seen, and conquered.

Tour dates – King’s Theatre, Glasgow – 9 February; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh – 10 February; Symphony, Birmingham – 11 February; new Theatre, Oxford – 14 February; the Marlowe, Canterbury – 16 February.