Based on the 2005 film, Kinky Boots has cemented itself as a musical theatre standard ever since it opened in Chicago in 2012.
\n\tWith music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper (yes, that Cyndi Lauper), you know you\u2019re in safe hands when it comes to songwriting. But, Lauper has managed to combine her signature bombastic rock style with more heartfelt and sincere tones, which give Kinky Boots a more well rounded and full feel which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. <\/p>\n
\n\tOne moment you could be pounding your fist at a thumping rock number and the next welling up as a character sings a ballad about their upbringing and their life.
\n\tKinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price, a fourth generation shoe-maker in Northampton. However, Charlie has no desire to follow his father into the family business and moves to London with his fiancee. Not long after arriving, (minor spoiler) Charlie\u2019s dad dies and so he reluctantly takes over the family business, which he discovers is near bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\n\tThrough a chance meeting with Lola (a local drag queen), he decides to make high-quality boots for drag queens. <\/p>\n
\n\tAdmittedly, the story does sound quite strange when you just read it in black and white, but the writing is so high quality that it never enters your mind. There\u2019s a reason it\u2019s won every Best Musical Award possible.<\/p>\n
\n\tBeing the umpteenth person to play a character, especially one as well known and beloved as Lola in Kinky Boots, is always a monumental challenge; no matter how you decide to play the part, you are almost guaranteed that someone has done it the same way before you.
\n\tAs is often the case, Lola, played by the excellent Callum Francis, stole the show, as every Lola tends to do. I could talk about the gorgeous set design; and gorgeous it was; or the magnificent supporting cast (one of which may have been there to help sell tickets, but that\u2019s by the by), but, truth be told, every scene was made better by the inclusion of Lola, and the scenes which she wasn\u2019t in left you waiting until her arrival again.<\/p>\n
\n\tHaving already seen Kinky Boots on the West End a long time before seeing this performance, it\u2019s only natural that I would make comparisons between that performance and this one. And, honestly, this was probably better. There were no areas which I was left wishing for the West End cast, and there were even a couple of moments which I felt were handled much better than on my first viewing. <\/p>\n
\n\tOne of these moments in particular was the rendition of \u2018Not My Father\u2019s Son\u2019, which the touring cast chose to do very differently to their London counterparts. While the West End cast chose to make it a passionate and emotional anthem, this cast chose to go in the opposite direction, making it tender and heartfelt.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf there was one nitpick I could make, and it is only a minor one which isn\u2019t the fault of anyone involved, it\u2019s that, as the show is a touring production, no children are able to be part of the cast, which means no young Charlie or Lola, which also meant that the rendition of \u201cThe Most Beautiful Thing\u201d didn\u2019t pull at the heartstrings as much as it could.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matt Crockett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Based on the 2005 film, Kinky Boots has cemented itself as a musical theatre standard ever since it opened in Chicago in 2012. With music…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1216,"featured_media":2967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4975,1],"tags":[7,1453,1318],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-uncategorised","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-opera-house","tag-musical-theatre"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n