Kinky Boots

★★★★★     Bootiful

Edinburgh Playhouse: Mon 10 Dec 2018 – Sat 5 Jan 2019
Review by Martin Gray
Tickets and details: Book here.

Kinky Boots brings musical comedy with sole to the Playhouse for five glamorous weeks over Christmas and into the New Year.

Everybody’s wearing those kinky boots, kinky boots... actually, forget Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman’s Sixties hit, that’s one song that isn’t in this show. All the tunes are original, courtesy of pop Queen Cyndi Lauper. They help tell the tale of a struggling Northampton shoe factory which, in a bid to stave off closure, diversifies into a decidedly niche product – fabulous footwear for ‘ladies, gentlemen and those who are yet to decide’.

The men behind the idea are Charlie, who has inherited the plant from his father and would rather be in London with his fiancé, and Lola, drag goddess turned shoe designer. They’re surrounded by a crew of factory workers and female impersonators who must make the apparently lunatic business decision work. Standing in the way of success are Charlie and Lola’s not insignificant insecurities.

Yep, we’re in ‘what makes a man?’ territory – Charlie the bluff Northampton lad who thinks he’s sophisticated enough to take on a drag queen as a partner, and Lola, confidence itself in a frock, able to knock anyone dead with a one-liner, but barely able to say boo to a goose when he’s simple Simon from Clacton.

They seem as different as night and day, but both have lingering daddy issues. Kinky Boots steers clear of tedium in this area by giving us believable characters – the script is by Harvey Fierstein of Torch Song Trilogy fame, based on the 2005 Britflick by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth. And the material is brought to glorious life in Jerry Mitchell’s production by a cast led by Joel Harper-Jackson and Kayi Ushe.

Lola burns with charisma and power, and Ushe – sounding terribly like Tim Curry’s Frank N Furter – is recognisably the same person when Lola tries to play it straight as Simon, the wattage turned down to acceptable EU levels.

Strong ensemble

Ushe could easily steal scenes but he takes his place in the strong ensemble cast, dominating only when the story puts the spotlight on Lola’s performances. Hold Me in Your Heart, for example, is a power ballad worthy of Dream Girls, marred only by weird lighting – she’s not so much in the spotlight here as in the path of a ten-ton truck.

Lola’s finest moment is the tango-tastic What a Woman Wants, with factory hardman/dinosaur Don (a ballsy performance by the superb Demitri Lampra), loyal worker Pat (the tuneful Mary Fox) and the rest of the all-singing, all-dancing ensemble. It’s an insightful song, wittily delivered and choreographed with real vim. We also get fight choreography, in a key scene involving Lola and Don, convincingly pulled off via lighting and slo-mo moves.

Director Mitchell is also behind the choreography and he should take a massive bow, or perhaps do a pirouette, because the moves on the complex dual-level set really are memorable, never more so than in Act One closer Everybody Say Yeah.

This sees delivery of the first of ‘Lola’s Kinky Boots’ become a party, as the conveyor belts transform into catwalks and cast members show enviable coordination, singing while flipping around the treadmill rails.

It helps that Everybody Say Yeah is one of the best songs in the show, a dizzyingly cheerful distillation of a moment of triumph, with joyful accompaniment from Patrick Hurley’s orchestra.

mood changes

The mood changes in Act Two, as Charlie begins to lose his nerve as the Milan fashion show at which they’re unveiling the make-or-break new line nears. He barks at his workers and throws horrible supposed home truths at Lola. Harper-Jackson is utterly convincing as a man projecting his fears and insecurities on others, and his gorgeous rendering of Soul of a Man is heartfelt.

The bump in the road is part of pretty much part of every musical, but Harper-Jackson mines the emotion and makes what could be just a plot twist meaningful; and of course, it makes the final triumph all the sweeter.

And the finale, Raise You Up/Just Be at the Milan show, really is a belter, a delicious combination of pop and pantomime. It makes for a memorable  ending to a truly fine musical, one with moments of real drama alongside the expected comedy.

Yes, Kinky Boots has drag queens camping it up all over the stage, but in ActOne’s Not My Father’s Son it also has a love song between two men who aren’t in love, performed with real feeling by Harper-Jackson and Ushe.

While this is Lola and Charlie’s story, there is one good female role, Lauren, the factory girl who helps the men achieve their dream – and one of her own that she didn’t even know she had. Paula Lane, best known as Coronation Street’s Kylie Platt, makes Lauren all-round adorable, with her solo The History of Wrong Guys a masterclass in being quirky without being annoying.

The moral of the story, just be who you want to be, isn’t the most original, but it bears repeating – and Kinky Boots gives it a very glamorous kick up the backside.

Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes (including one interval)
Edinburgh Playhouse 18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014
Monday 10 December 2018 – Saturday 5 January 2019
Evenings: Mon – Sat & Sun 30: 7.30pm, except Fri 14, 21 & 4: 5pm & 8pm.
Matinees: Sats, 24, 27, 30, 2: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.

ENDS

Tags: Cyndi Lauper, Demitri Lampra, Harvey Fierstein, Jerry Mitchell, Joel Harper-Jackson, Kayi Ushe, Kinky Boots, Martin Gray, Mary Fox, Musicals, Patrick Hurley, Paula Lane, Playhouse, Review