Grand theatre, LeedsThe Spice Girl’s spoken-word show spans her chaotic life story and provides a compelling look at superstardom’s human cost
This show is billed as “brutally honest” so let’s be brutally honest. Mel B’s audience isn’t full – although neither is it the sales disaster that supports tabloid speculation that two spoken-word performances will lose her £57,000. She also denies press reports that she is “unemployed and broke”. However, there’s certainly a story in how working-class teenager Melanie Brown became a Spice Girls superstar and is now a 44-year old mother back home in Leeds, living with her mum.
Grilled on a union jack sofa by “celebrity journalist”/biographer Louise Gannon, Brown reveals the five hours of hair-weaving and vocal warm-ups that turn her into Scary Spice. She talks about her mixed-race childhood and bisexuality, hints that the Spice Girls will play Glastonbury in 2020 and is joined by her dog, Cookie, who promptly pees on stage.