insideKENT Magazine Issue 67 - October 2017 | Page 143

LONDON
London theatre review:
KINKY BOOTS
BY LISAMARIE LAMB / PHOTOS BY MATT CROCKETT
YOU MAY NOT CONSIDER FACTORIES AND FOOTWEAR PARTICULARLY EXCITING. THEY MAY
NOT BE YOUR IDEA OF A FUN TIME. BUT WITH THE MUSICAL KINKY BOOTS, WRITTEN BY HARVEY
FIERSTEIN AND CYNDI LAUPER, YOU’LL CHANGE YOUR MIND. ONCE YOU’VE SEEN THIS TRULY
FEEL-GOOD SHOW WITH ITS UPLIFTING STORY, ITS CHEERFUL MUSIC AND ITS MEMORABLE
CAST, ONE MENTION OF AN ASSEMBLY LINE AND YOU’LL BE HUMMING THE TUNES TO YOURSELF
ALL DAY LONG.
Kinky Boots is based on the true story of a
failing footwear factory and its loveable, loyal
employees. Our hero, Charlie Price, longs to
get away from the Northern town in which
he has lived and worked all of his life, so he
packs up, leaves his job as Price and Son’s
manager, and heads to the sparkling, twinkling,
lying lights of London. But Charlie’s father
dies, and he finds that he is drawn away from
London’s lure back to where he started. Only
this time, the factory isn’t doing so well, and
it might be that closure is the only option.
A chance encounter with a drag queen named
Lola changes everything. Could handmade
women’s boots made just for men actually be
a successful business?
And therein lies the premise of this funny,
tear-jerking, funfest of a show.
Cyndi Lauper is a great choice as a composer
for the score for Kinky Boots. We know her as
a loud, brash, say-exactly-what-you-think
kind of person, and that magnetic and raucous
personality is clearly evident in the big
numbers that sail out into the audience like a
big, happy rainbow cloud of joy. But she really
excels in the quieter moments, showing a
sophisticated range of emotions that takes the
audience through the outer layer of camp and
glitz into the real people behind the makeup.
The characters in this kind of show would be
so easy to get wrong. Caricatures or
stereotypes that are enjoyable but ultimately
flat is the easy way to go, but it’s not the way
of Kinky Boots. Here we have well thought out
characters who are neither entirely good nor
entirely bad, but are just something like the
rest of us – a little mixed up, a little bit tired,
loving and protective and wanting to make
the best of life. That’s them. That’s us. Which
is why, when we watch Kinky Boots, we can
understand the plight, and the reactions. We
can understand the need to do whatever it
takes to get where we want to be.
And of course, we’ve all wanted to dance in
perfect time along a moving factory conveyer
belt, haven’t we? Well… haven’t we?
Dancing aside (although it is pretty
spectacular), there is amazing singing, the
storyline is a great one, with enough twists
and turns to keep the audience’s attention,
despite knowing – and it’s nice to know this
– that it will all end happily, draggily ever after
(give or take), and the music… the music is a
neverending cascade of newfound classics.
Kick your feet up and enjoy.
www.kinkybootsthemusical.co.uk
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