mytravelbugbite

Kinky Boots was the winner of the 2016 Olivier Award for best musical so naturally I wanted to see it. Currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End it follows a failing shoe making factory in Northampton that needs to find a new niche market in order to stay afloat. Enter a drag artist who struggles to find heels that can support her frame, but could this match ever work? It is funny and camp but also deals expertly with issues of gender, sexuality and prejudice.

I enjoyed the inventive set and props which included a centre island that was rotated to change the setting throughout the piece. The production line conveyor belts were also cleverly incorporated.

The songs are not well known but are catchy enough that you come out humming them with good lyrics to boot (just realised as I wrote this the pun, I apologise profusely). There is also decent choreography especially from those in drag, I have massive respect for some of the moves they were doing in the skyscraper heels.

The cast included Killian Donnelly as Charlie Price who has a terrific singing voice which was particularly well displayed during his rendition of “Soul of a Man”. Playing Lola/Simon is Matt Henry who had so much raw emotion and yet was able to pull out extreme amounts of sass. Alongside this were some great supporting roles portrayed by the rest of the talented cast. My one criticism of them would be the questionable Northampton accents. This probably wouldn’t be obvious or a problem for most people but seeing as it is my hometown it did stick out to me.

My only other slight issue with the musical was with the sound mixing. It wasn’t so bad later on in the show but I thought in the first 2-3 numbers the band overpowered the singers so we lost a few of the lyrics.

Overall though this is a hit show well deserving of its critical acclaim and I would highly recommend getting to see it if you can especially as tickets seem to be pretty reasonable (by West End prices) and not too difficult to secure.

For more information on the show and tickets visit the website here.

Have you seen Kinky Boots? What did you think of the show?