like a virgin?

It’s a disarming thought is'n it? A 43-year-old ex-party girl rolling around on a bed in little more than an oversized t-shirt pretending to be a teenager? Disarming but intriguing, and let me tell you, if I look half as good as Sadie Frost after four kids, I’ll be stripping to my knickers every chance I get.
Touched…For the Very First Time is the new one-woman play that’s brought the multi-faceted Sadie Frost back to acting. It tells the story of a self-confessed ‘modern woman’ navigating her way through the pitfalls of life as she struggles to find herself through following Madonna’s principles. As the queen of pop performs her chameleon routine over time, so does Lesley, resulting in a hilarious caper that sees her switch from socialist’s daughter to boarding school student, Tory girlfriend to squat dweller, Motown Records extraordinaire to AIDs charity worker without ever being able to seize what truly makes her happy.
For those that are dubious of Frost’s return to the stage must remember that it was acting that first brought her into the public eye. Hailed as the Keira Knightly of her day, Frost had several high profile roles including Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula before chucking it all in for a life of motherhood and, ahem, partying with Kate Moss. Frost’s acting ability is clearly apparent as she sashays her way around the intimate set, drawing personal connections with individual audience members; constructing a congenial character that the audience visibly warm to, no matter what terrible desicions Lesley makes. Most importantly she manages to forgo her offstage persona in order to assume her onstage being, a problem so many celebrities onstage are unable to do.
The script does read something like a homage to the clichés of the eighties and nineties with a plethora of name checks that nod to everything from the Met Bar to the Hacienda, all drawing knowing chuckles from the audience, whilst a soundtrack of eighties heaven intermits scenes. Although the script is seemingly written for Frost, it is, in reality, semi-autobiographical of the author Zoe Lewis, and unlike other similar self-expressional ventures, the beauty behind this one is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The play is there to be enjoyed rather than to generate life-changing revelations, and if some of the unduly harsh critics of the play up until now had dismounted from their high horses and seen the play in this light, then reactions would have been entirely more deserving.
Touched…is quite simply a delight; it’s a mile away from the middle class pretentions that still refuse to drain out of London’s theatre. Rather than being a chore, it feels more like a chat with an old friend; entertaining and long overdue. Frost is a pleasure to watch as she steers you through a flight of nostalgia that you didn’t realise was needed. And let’s face it, in these troubled times, a bit of light relief and a look back to the good old days can do wonders.