At what point do you know you’ve done enough with your theatre production? Is it after you sell-out on all nights of the run? Or perhaps after winning the Olivier, Tony and Grammy awards? Kinky Boots has achieved all of those things, but its director Nikolai Foster still wants more. The acclaimed performance is now back and rebooted at the London Coliseum.
The story centres on Charlie Price, played by 2010 X Factor-winner Matt Cardle, who is torn between his father’s failing shoe factory in Northampton and a promising life in London. While in the capital he crosses paths with an impossibly glamorous drag queen, Lola, perfectly embodied by Johannes Radebe of Strictly Come Dancing. It is a tale of prejudice, acceptance and collaboration, as the two begin working together on saving Charlie’s father’s company.
Clad head to toe in fire-truck red sequins, frills and satins designed by Robert Jones and Tom Rogers, Lola easily dwarfs the other actors on stage. Her musical sequences are larger-than-life and will make you consider signing up to a burlesque class (conveniently, there is a burlesque studio 10 minutes from the theatre). The atmosphere visibly shifts, and the neon stage lights designed by Ben Cracknell seem to brighten as Radebe chasses onto the stage against a backdrop of a factory-turned-pop-concert setting with a hydraulic stage and a light-up red boot.
But Lola’s wattage makes the other characters slightly bland. Cardle’s vocals are immaculate, but he’s difficult to connect with; others blend into the background, becoming part of the factory’s furniture rather than adding texture to the storyline – although, dues must be given to George (Scott Page) and Lauren (Courtney Bowman) who inject humour through their commedia dell’arte-esque sequences.
The new production of Kinky Boots might be bold and blinding – at times literally – but the change was not necessary. Radebe, with his infectious energy, proves that the show’s boldness comes from the cast rather than the bright lights of the staging or the extravagant costumes of the drag queens.
[Further reading: John Proctor is the Villain is a thrilling teenage-girl take on The Crucible]
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