Kinky Boots The Musical

London West End Show – Kinky Boots:

I was a big fan of Kinky Boots the movie.  It’s a feel good (true) story of a failing Northampton shoe manufacturer, who is saved from bankruptcy by the foresight of the new young owner.  Rather than churning out the expensive, dated male footwear which is no longer in demand, he discovers a gap in the market for “kinky” boots made specifically for transvestites.  The story features around the two main characters; Charlie, heir to Prices Shoe empire and Lola;  the flamboyant drag queen who gives Charlie the inspiration to turn around his ailing, family business.  Larger than life Lola ends up living in Northampton while working on this venture with Charlie and certainly gives the locals something to talk about.

The film was a Brit flick at its best, with just the right amount of humour and sentimentality.  The stage production has transferred from Broadway, with all the razzmatazz the Americans do best.  But somehow, for me, the incredible story itself gets lost amidst a new theme of overcoming disapproving fathers and achieving acceptance.  Not that this isn’t a good message but probably didn’t need to be pushed quite so hard that it detracts from the story itself.

However, one thing this production has in abundance is FUN.  Lola and her “angels” wear the most outlandish costumes and pull off some pretty impressive dance routines in their thigh-high sparkly footwear.  It had me laughing out loud throughout and it also benefits from having a very strong lead cast.  Both Killian Donnelly (Charlie) and Matt Henry (Lola) play their parts to perfection and give an equally strong vocal performance.  Sadly the rest of the cast were less believable, not helped by their pretty ropey attempt at Northampton accents (anything remotely northern may do it for an American audience but not when you transfer to the UK!)  I was also disappointed in the musical score.  Cindy Lauper penned the soundtrack which was, to be quite honest, bland.  It would have definitely benefitted from one or two of the songs she is best known for.  Girls Just Want to Have Fun, True Colours or I Drove All Night could easily have fitted into the storyline and had audiences humming on the way home.  Although judging by the amount of whooping coming from the audience, I’d say it was mostly made up of tourists, which I feel will be the show’s mainstay.

The show is appearing at the Adelphi Theatre.  I would warn you that they seem to have adopted a policy of “upgrading” those with tickets higher up and further back.  Our tickets were in the middle of the Grand Circle.  We arrived about 5 minutes before curtain up, to find our seats taken by those who had apparently been “upgraded”.  We were told to go and speak to staff who would do the same for us.  By the time we found anyone who was either willing or able to help, the show had started and we found ourselves shown to seats only one row in front of where we should have been sitting but so much on the end that we would have had a restricted view.  When we said we wouldn’t take them, we were told to sit anywhere that was free.  We found better seats but still would have preferred our original ones.  I would suggest that if you do go, you get there early and stick to your seats like glue if you like them!

Kinky Boots is showing at the Adelphi Theatre