A fascinating woman tells stories about her fascinating life, but the resulting show does not reach those heights
Candace Bushnell: True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex and the City. Pretty much tells you all you need to know about what this show is. Bushnell is the writer and creator of Sex and the City and used her real life for her stories. She is the original and non-fictional Carrie Bradshaw, and has the same love of shoes and eccentric love life to match. This is a one woman show where she tells us about her life and explains the inspiration behind her stories, while sharing her own musings and rules for life.
This show is very much marketed towards fans of the TV show Sex and the City, and I am sure that some superfans will relish the opportunity to hear about the woman who created the phenomenon, however, I do think some fans would be disappointed. There is not actually a huge amount of focus on the TV show itself, rather some of the real-life events that inspired the show, which while interesting, did not give the exclusive behind the scenes look at the show that I was expecting. I make no claims to being a huge Sex and the City fan, but even I was disappointed that we did not get to learn more about the women who inspired these iconic characters (apart from of course Candace/Carrie). Getting the show itself made also was not looked at in great detail, nor was how Candace’s writing career began or how it properly took off.
This is a 2-act show, but with each act being 45 minutes, it is not a long show. In my opinion, there was too much being crammed into the running time, and delving into more areas could have been far more interesting. Not only around the show Sex and the City, but Candace also brushes over seemingly very consequential moments in her life that I would have loved to have learnt more about. A particular moment that needed more space to breathe and perhaps more detail, was Candace’s suicidal thoughts and depression when she was young living in New York. Before you can even get used to the tonal shift of now talking about a serious topic rather than shoes, the moment has ended and Candace is back to her bubbly self. There were lots of interesting things in this show, I just wanted more!
The show is quite slick with a clear script with beats, audio cues, and costume changes. It’s very much not “an audience with…..” but rather it is definitely a show. However, one of the best moments of the night was when Candace went off script when a member of the audience shouted out “Really?” to which she responded “Really!”. It was a simple interaction but it was good fun, and I do think more of this back and forth could have been included in the show. She had great stage presence and I wanted to see her let loose a bit from the script and interact with the audience, the vast majority of whom were big fans of her.
Some sections of this show did not really work for me. The acting moments, with Candace playing a younger version of herself talking to her girlfriends on the phone, did not really work for me. Candace is a brilliant writer, raconteur, and stage personality, but I would not add actress to that list. These moments were ever so slightly cringe inducing and felt very childlike in a rather adult show. The real or not real sections were a good idea, with some fun audience involvement, but this could have been done even more and perhaps expanded on. One particularly bizarre moment however is when Candace, when exalting the virtues of living on her own post-divorce, exclaimed that she could leave scrunchies wherever she wanted, and then began throwing scrunchies into the crowd. This was genuinely bewildering and there were a fair few befuddled faces in the audience during this moment. It was entertaining, but it was weird and not massively in-keeping with the rest of the show.
Candace Bushnell is a fascinating woman with a fascinating life. I am just not sure that this show was the best display of this. Super fans of the show or of Candace herself I am sure will have a great time, but for me, I was just left wanting more.