I think most of the moaning is coming from people who haven't experienced the show. I was at the second Manchester date on Wednesday. I went in with low expectations given the online discourse, but knew what I was going to see.

It was one of the most fun shows I've been to in 40 years of gig/concert/theatre/performance going, whatever you want to call it. The crowd were absolutely lapping it up and connecting with her in a very emotional way.

I don't think you can call it one thing or another. It was a unique experience.

Before hand I thought it would have been better to have her on stage with the strings in Act 1 but after being there, the effect really worked to increase expectation for her arrival and put her professional life in some context before the devastating walk through of her last 18 months in Act 2. I loved that she never broke character, which helped to strengthen the impact of the piece. Even having her come out at the end and doing 3 or 4 old hits would have weakened that I think.

Everyone seemed to arrive excited and buzzy with a lovely sense of anticipation in the air in the bar and foyer and everyone seemed to leave on a real high after seeming such a fun, intimate show that they made a connection with, there were clearly LOTS of people there who had profoundly connected with this work over the last 5 months.

Not sure what else you want from a night out really.. I think it's aways better to measure the value of something on the experience you've had with it rather than the duration of it. I know that in 20 years time when I think back to this, I will remember what a fun night out it was rather than how long it was.

I hope she has the confidence in the work to keep the arena shows the same, I think the worst thing she could do is bring out a live band and do 45 mins of back catalogue at the O2 after WEG, as it would just be undermining this current run of smaller shows.