What I love about going to musical theatre is the joy of pure entertainment tied together with the opportunity for learning a new thing or two. I realise that I only know Kinky Boots on a fairly superficial level – the basic premise and a few hit numbers. I saw the movie when it came out in the early 2000s but haven’t seen the musical except for snapshot moments over YouTube or through teaching the main female-character hit song to singing students.

Kinky Boots is a movie based on a true story about an economically collapsing British Midlands shoe factory featured on the 1999 episode of the BBC2 documentary television series Trouble at the Top. It then turned musical with Book by award winning actor Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Grammy and Emmy winning songwriter, Cyndi Lauper. It won six Tonys including Best Musical and Best Score, the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album and London’s Olivier Award for Best Musical and it certainly belongs on the big stage.

The story brings two characters together: Lola, a fabulous drag entertainer (Canadian, Stewart Adam McKensy) and Charlie, a reluctant shoe factory owner (Nic Kyle), who in order to save the Price and Son shoe factory, takes a completely un-characteristic path from creating sensible brown work shoes to creating sturdy glittery stiletto boots for drag performers with Lola as the designer.

They discover they both have complicated past relationships with their fathers and the baggage that goes along with that as they find their own sense of self, particularly Charlie, who is ridden with duty guilt for not having the family shoe passion, and Lola (born, Simon), with great vulnerability and through humour, shows not just Charlie, but everyone onstage (and in the audience) that there are many ways to be a man.

McKensy and Kyle portray these completely different characters with a poignant truth of heart, awkwardness and sass accordingly.

Lola / Simon is described in a character brief as: “A drag queen in his early 30s with winning ways. Simon has the physique of a prize fighter draped in satin.” McKensy’s Lola certainly makes us sit up and watch every move and hang on every word. There is an ease and humility in both the character and the actor, I feel.

There is a kind of a rule in musical theatre writing: A character speaks until they can no longer speak, and then they sing. So where film can get the close up facial expressions and long pauses as we see the nuance of the inner monologue playing out in the space, in musical theatre plays, the songs become the expression of the unspoken emotion and dilemma’s being played out.

We see this beautifully in the duet ‘Not my Father’s Son’ between Lola and Charlie and Charlie’s ‘Soul of a Man’ (’scuse the pun!) rock ballad with lyrics that Flight of the Conchords would be proud of. Lola gives her all in the I want ballad ‘Hold Me In Your Heart’, reminiscent of Dream Girls or epic Whitney, while Nomi Cohen’s character Lauren reveals her sudden realisation of her feelings for Charlie in the iconic song ‘The History of Wrong Guys’ with impeccable comic timing. The song is so well known as performed by the original Lauren, Annaleigh Ashford, but Cohen manages to make her own with some hilarious vocal and acting choices! A real show stopper!

This Amici Trust and G & T Production with its majority New Zealand cast under director David Adkins, is one giant extravaganza, from the vastness of Harold Moot’s set design of the factory building, which takes up the entire depth, breadth and height of the St James stage, the mundane versus the outrageously flamboyant costuming by Stephen Robertson and exquisite wigs and make up by Abi Johnson, to the fierce choreography by James Luck.

The rocking band under musical director Zac Johns. They execute the varying range of style from pop/rock, to funk, to new wave, to tango brilliantly but I do struggle with the volume levels throughout sections of the show which unfortunately overshadow lyrics, especially in the big ensemble numbers.

The set and costume colour palette is vibrantly augmented or refocused into touching intimacy without the need for lessening the stage size, with Dave Spark’s lighting. Into the muted colours of the somewhat dated factory workers against the brick backdrop and archaic machinery burst the majestic Angels, Lola’s all dancing, singing, sashaying Greek chorus of Drag Queens. They are so utterly stunning, I have to name them all: Medhi Angot, Jeremy Hinman, Olly Humphries, Greg Jarema, Josh Morris, Drew Noble and Rocco Conaghan. Each has their own character personality to add another level of play to the group.

I have never seen such a bevy of beautifully attired, well heeled (literally) dancers working in such perfect formation – so mesmerising as they dance with such a unique energy, one of total precision, but also with a nonchalant, ‘well, of course I’m fabulous, why wouldn’t you want to watch me’ attitude that oozes out of every flick and kick. It looks effortless.

The ensemble are stellar, with many featured solo roles. The portrayals of Mr Price (Sandy Leadbeater), Trish (Julie O’Brien), Pat (Celia Macdonald), Nicola (Nicole Brebner), George (Richie Rewa), Harry (Fynn Bodley-Davies) and the young lads playing Young Lola (Asher Whitehead; alternate Maharanui Muriwai Kaiwai-Wanikau) and Young Charlie (Blake Williams; alternate Jacob Clough) are all excellent. Notably Patrick Jennings plays Don, a Northampton bloke, with very stereotypical views of what he thinks of Lola ‘and the like’. His characterisation through Don’s journey is on point and we can see the dawnings of realisation about his own prejudices. The saying ‘when you change your mind, you can change your whole world’ applies to him as much as to Charlie.

Kinky Boots is relatable in so many ways but for a 2023 production, I have to wonder if the story, given its time of setting, goes deep enough to continue to make an impact.

But it is still a much-needed reflection of the many conversations and lived experiences in this day and age, especially where there is so much overt prejudice towards our diverse communities. How many people are walking around following the unchallenged, ingrained learnings of their childhood, just like Charlie, until they rear their ugly head and need to be addressed!

And I do think that laughter gets us through the hard stuff, takes the edge off it and gives a more positive avenue to move through the mire. Add in those over 2000 costume pieces and 60 pairs of exquisite boots and, yeah, it’s still an absolute winner to blow out the winter chills.  

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I was a Kinky Boots the Musical virgin. I’d never heard of or seen the funky musical about two unlikely friends and the world of drag before Wednesday night.

So I did my research and put on my highest boots in preparation, a pair of black, 4-inch, fake crocodile leather boots from an online purchase made during lockdown.

The colourful show, directed by David Adkins, follows flamboyant Lola, played by Canadian Stewart Adam McKensy (who, spoiler, really does steal the show), and struggling factory owner Charlie Price, (Nic Kyle) as they drag his sad shoe factory back to life with fabulous thigh-high boots. [More]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Auckland’s Civic Theatre has been transformed into a confetti-filled funderland for the red carpet arrival of Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots this week.

That’s right, Auckland city has turned red with glam, mayhem and sex appeal combined, in this audience favourite brought to life by its creative team: writer Harvey Fierstein and rockstar Cyndi Lauper.

Audiences play a crucial part of the show, rocking out in sparkles up and down Queen Street for a buzzing and cocktail-filled opening night on Thursday, ready for a packed show filled with style, heart and sequins.

The world first fell in love with our leading character, Charlie from Northampton (played in Auckland by Nic Kyle), in the 2005 British film of the same name, where Charlie is a non-leading man in his own life thanks to the inherited pressure of running a shoe factory; where the last thing he wants to hear is “Let’s make boots!”

When Charlie meets Lola from London (aka Simon from Clacton, played by the irresistible Stewart Adam McKensy) in desperate need of quality ‘kinky boots’, their stars align and the pair set a plan in motion to change hearts and fashion in the process.

The winner of six Tony awards and 13 nominations, Kinky Boots’ continued fandom is testament to the heart and sole in this show, from its dream writing team to perfected direction by David Adkins, magical musical direction by Zac Johns and a charming multi-purpose industrial set by Harold Moot, plus genius costume and design by Stephen Robertson.

My favourite fashion moment is Lola’s Angels strutting around the Price & Son factory in swirling pink plaid trench coats, each with their own unique lining in every shade of the rainbow.

Nic Kyle portrays all the depth you will love and hate in Charlie – a “spoilt twit waiting for the world to be handed to him” – but ultimately changes that perception and finds for himself that a good pair of shoes really does change your life.

Other show stand-outs include Nomi Cohen playing hilarious Lauren’s heartfelt ‘The History of Wrong Guys’, and Jocelyn Scott’s soulful solo in the ‘Price & Son’ song’s funeral rendition. Everything this cast touches turns to glitter and gold!

The talented cast – and crew – master every quick set change and belt every number, with favourites being the stadium-worthy ‘Soul of a Man’, energetic ‘Take What You Got’, and ‘Hold Me In Your Heart’sequined solo by Stewart Adam McKensy as Lola, who gives original Broadway cast member Billy Porter’s rendition a run for his stockings.

Since Kinky Boots, Billy has embarked on an incredible career of performances and music that inspire, uplift, and create a call to action wherever he goes – just like Kinky Boots does. As he revealed on The Graham Norton Show, “We can’t wait for future generations, we have to be the change, the time is now.”

I hope audiences flock to Kinky Boots and kick their own walls down wherever they go: this star-studded cast shows us how it’s done. Just don’t forget to turn your phone off, because I wouldn’t want Don (the charmingly terrifying Patrick Jennings) to throw any more punches than those beautifully choreographed by the fabulous James Luck.

“What a man leaves behind ain’t what’s in his pockets, sometimes it’s what he inspires in others,” he teaches us, and our roaring, applauding audience is here for the journey – to the quickest standing ovation I have ever seen. You’ll have to see the show for yourself to see why.

Forget your “executised” life and get Kinkified, jump into your dreams and find an escape here at Kinky Boots while you can. You will laugh out loud, love out loud and feel all the more sexy for it. So get those tickets now before the love sells out!

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