Self Esteem at Duke of York’s Theatre review: a true one-of-a-kind

When Rebecca Lucy Taylor released 2021’s Prioritise Pleasure - her second solo album as Self Esteem following a decade already in the industry - the record became a lightning rod for an entire generation of women, fed up of being told who and how they should be and ready for a pop star who could soundtrack the alternative. Prioritise Pleasure became more than an album, it became a cultural moment - propelling Taylor from relative indie obscurity to magazine covers and the mainstream stage.

Rather than a classic difficult second (or in this case, third) album, Self Esteem’s next moves have had an even more impossible bar set for them. Lightning, as they say, rarely strikes twice. However, debuting forthcoming third LP A Complicated Woman last night with a wildly ambitious new live show - part gig, part theatre, and taking over the West End’s Duke of York’s for four nights so as to cement the framing - Taylor dispelled any fears in one meticulously-crafted set piece.

It’s not that she’s tried a wildly different new trick: the message is the message. But the vehicle she’s developed for telling it has been souped up into a 75 minute show split over four acts (Exorcism / Stamina / Men (Messy) / Balance) that began with the audience cackling with laughter and ended with many of them in happy tears. In turns, funny, sexy, furious and oh so joyful, it was part Rolls Royce, part clown car: a hybrid that felt like little else out there.

“Please be upstanding for the world’s most confusing House of Games contestant and Bake Off failure, Self Esteem!” she narrated off stage, before the lights came up on Taylor, dressed in the austere, Handmaid’s Tale-esque outfit of A Complicated Woman’s album cover. The spoken word verses of opener I Do And I Don’t Care recalled breakthrough hit I Do This All The Time as Taylor, cigarette in hand, was slowly joined by a chorus of similarly-clad backing singers and dancers emerging into the light.

Throughout, this ten-strong troupe provided the framework for the show’s elevated offering. There were minimalist sets - a circle of chairs facing inwards on which the performers writhed and convulsed during the vengeful, pulsating Lies, or a locker room-like configuration during You Forever’s wildly impressive workout routine, Taylor’s vocals remaining note-perfect whilst squatting and running in place. But predominantly, the emotion came from the interplay between the musician and her fellow women on stage.

On the club pulse of Mother, it found them convulsing over lyrics about babied male partners (curiously, the theatre setting seemed to allow more demonstrative laughter to these lyrics than a gig space ever would). On the winking 69, during which Taylor deadpan rattled off a list of sex positions, the dancers acted them out before stripping the singer of her habit-like outfit. “Is everyone alright? Is my dad alright?” she joked after. During Prioritise Pleasure’s title track, meanwhile, the routine was slick and militaristic: Self Esteem’s own miniature Super Bowl.

Constantly playing with and switching up dynamics, there was a wryly-introduced slow section (“If I was the male frontman of a stadium band then I’d sit down with a pint and play a few songs on an acoustic guitar… but I’m gonna stand up”) soon followed by a gloriously campy, neon-lit disco. On the kitschy pop sing-along of Cheers To Me, a video of Taylor Tinder-matching with various inflatable tube men then came to life as two rose up from the stage to wobble around. Imbued with the spirit of a giddy drag brunch, it was utterly ridiculous and designed purely for uncynical fun.

If one of Taylor’s greatest strengths is her ability to mix the silly and serious, making weighty, meaningful statements that disrupt societal norms one minute and then gyrating on a blow-up stickman the next, then the other takeaway from A Complicated Woman’s phenomenal live show was the joy with which she spotlit female friendships and support networks. The camaraderie on stage was palpable and, at times, emotional. As the performers emerged in a version of non-uniform for a final one-two of I Do This All The Time and new highlight The Deep Blue Okay - a meditation on strength and acceptance - it was like watching a group of old school friends getting closure and coming out the other side.

Recent lead single Focus Is Power saw Taylor and her cohorts singing its final lines a capella: “And now I see it clear with every passing of each year / I deserve to be here”. Slick, ambitious and innovative but also bursting with heart, this show deserves not just its rightful spot on the West End Stage, but to underline Self Esteem as a true one-of-a-kind.

Duke of York’s Theatre, to April 20; selfesteem.love