I didn’t want to be with Mr Big, I wanted to be Mr Big’. Candace Bushnell, the American author and journalist whose sex and relationship column was later adapted into the hit series ‘Sex and the City’; takes the audience on a hedonistic, whistlestop tour of her life, from her early twenties in Studio 54 to a fabulous looking 65-year-old singleton.
Dropping out of college to run away to New York, a few dubious exploits later, Bushnell becomes the original ‘it girl’, writing the column in the New York Observer that was soon to become one of the best loved TV shows of the late nineties and early noughties.
Being typically American, the self-styled ‘Candi with an I’, does not have self-deprecation as part of her vocabulary, detailing all her achievements and much name dropping of famous lovers, with the evening building to a rousing post-menopausal pep rally. The set is a glittery homage to shoes and designer bags characterizing the glamour of the show. Strutting with enviable ease around the stage in her Manolo Blahniks, Candace Bushnell leaves nothing to the imagination – luckily there were no men in the audience to be shocked!
Bushnell dissects and gives insider details to certain Sex and the City clips while recounting an impressive 90-minute one-woman show. Clever details such as the evolution of the mobile through the years are weaved in as the tale from the first column, to the 4th New York Times best selling novel are exposed.
This is a frivolous night out aimed at all those who are probably the same age as Sarah Jessica Parker, now living their best life with a pre-show cosmopolitan cocktail. Despite recounting the trials and tribulations of romantic love, the show is a love letter to the power and endurance of female friendships.
Image provided via Capital Theatres Press Release