Luisa Omielan: What Would Beyoncé Do?, Soho Theatre, review It would be great if 2013 could be the year when one particularly tiresome debate could be binned for ever - the "Are Women Funny?" debate. Women are funny, period. My wife's funnier than I am, my daughter's funnier than the pair of us, and Luisa Omielan's show at Soho Theatre - already a word-of-mouth sell-out smash - is about as funny as any comedy show needs to get. The title is intriguing but misleadingly niche. Omielan (of Polish descent, one should say, because the surname is as unusual as it is hard to pronounce) has a big thing about Beyoncé. That thing has almost nothing to do with the tedious, minutiae-hugging devotion of the obsessive fan and everything to do with one woman's comically aggrieved realisation that while the American diva has it all, she has wound up, somehow, with next to nothing. "They didn't teach you at school that by the age of 30, you'd still be nowhere," she rails, divulging how she jacked in her soul-destroying nine-to-five job, quit paying rent on a lousy shoebox of a London flat, and moved back in with her mother, having been dumped by the love of her life. She got a first-class degree, she complains - and listening to her chat at a hyper-articulate pace, at once back-of-the-bus candid and streetwise clever, you can believe it. Yet as many of her generation are discovering, what good is a degree when it can't get you the celebrity lifestyle you were promised as a birthright? And how does being a go-get-it Single Lady square with the long-lingering, insidious etiquette of sexual engagement and old-fashioned heartbreak? Omielan's exaggerated sense of failure - which chimes with a national mood of what-went-wrong? - could make for a depressing stand-up therapy session. But aside from a sudden, salutary discussion of her younger brother's suicide attempt at Christmas, the evening boasts a feelgood factor so pronounced they should prescribe it on the NHS. Whether she's rolling about on the floor in re-enacted grief at her relationship bust-up or throwing herself body and soul into dignity-free dance-alongs to bursts of Beyoncé classics, Omielan displays a physical courage that's easily a match for her ubiquitous male peers. As for her unapologetic confession that she admires Margaret Thatcher? I've never heard any comic say as much without being howled down let alone reap the abundant love the crowd clearly shows her in return. Fresh, frank and fearless - a gutsy new star is born. Extended run: Feb 12-16. Tickets: 020 7478 0100; sohotheatre.com