Slightly revised from last year’s UK tour, and ten years after I last saw the show in the West End, Kinky Boots is strutting its stuff at the London Coliseum for a three-month run.
This time round, the camp and cheesy musical (book by Harvey Fierstein, music by Cyndi Lauper) is headlined by Strictly Come Dancing superstar Johannes Radebe as Lola, and 2010’s The X Factor winner Matt Cardle as Charlie.
Kinky Boots is unapologetically loud, brash, and crowd-pleasing. The ensemble, who play the factory workers and the Angels, is a tight-knit bunch with some breakout performances (like Scott Paige as George, the foreman).
The show’s message has not been diluted in the last decade, but some of the dialogue feels a little too real at a time when LGBTQIA+ people are increasingly under attack. Charlie’s speech in Act Two feels unnecessarily cruel and vicious.
Cardle’s Charlie seems angry with the world from the first moment. He’s expected to follow his father in running shoe manufacturer Price & Sons, but decides to uproot to join his high-maintenance girlfriend, Nicola, in London.
Events conspire to change this, and back in Northampton, Charlie finds himself needing a miracle to re-route the factory. Enter Lola, a drag queen who brings sex to shoe-making.
The real question is how the two leads, plus Courtney Bowman as Lauren, come across. There are big songs for all three: for Lola, “Hold Me In Your Heart”; for Charlie, “The Soul of a Man”; and for Lauren, “The History of Wrong Guys”.
It’s easy to see why Radebe was cast as his personality dominates the stage whenever Lola is there, and his dancing skills are, of course, the big draw. Singing-wise, I felt the big number lacked something, perhaps that special something that moves from technical proficiency to knock-out perfection.
Cardle and Bowman are extremely effective in their roles, with Charlie and Lauren both offering something believable to the setting of a declining East Midlands town, where the loss of one pay packet is difficult, and the loss of a job is catastrophic.
Nicola’s need to escape the town of her birth and find solace in expensive shoes, cheaply made, is a pointed contrast to Charlie’s care for his employees. London isn’t the answer to everything.
Based on the 2005 film, itself loosely based on true events and achieving something of a cult status, Kinky Boots as a musical has become wildly popular as a positive statement for difference and expression.
There are some cliched characters, the male chauvinist on the factory floor and the property developer who measures the world in pound signs, but the writing for Lola in particular is quite strong as we see her childhood and feel her need to mask the man within the disguise.
In framing the big numbers as key points in the narrative, with Act One’s “The Sex is in the Heel” and Act Two’s “Raise You Up”, an element of high energy is maintained throughout. Director Nikolai Foster and choreographer Leah Hill keep the pace buzzing.
Several storylines build including Lauren’s growing attraction for Charlie, Don’s change of heart and acceptance, and Lola’s relationship with her father.
The storyline doesn’t go deep, but it is there, with the basic conflict of whether the factory can be saved by producing the ‘kinky boots’.
When I last reviewed this, I said it was “A gloriously fun night in the theatre which I would love to see again.”
That still holds. Kinky Boots earns 4 stars from me.
Kinky Boots is playing at the London Coliseum until 6 Jul.
Johannes Radebe will NOT be appearing at the following performances:Â
Fri 26 June, and all Mon performances 6 Apr-6 Jul. At these performances, the role of Lola will be played by Tosh Wanogho-Maud.
Photo credit: Matt Crockett