Johannes Radebe (AKA Jojo from Strictly) is a born performer. He is totally magnetic on stage, and when he’s dancing you’ll be able to’t take your eyes off him. The position of the drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots might have been written for Radebe, whose entrances alone are a factor to behold – rising from a trapdoor, say, draped in a floor-length crimson robe and carrying a curly blond wig, half Diana Ross, half Whitney Houston. The musical is primarily based on the 2005 movie impressed by the real-life story of a troubled Northampton shoe manufacturing facility that switches to creating thigh-high boots for drag queens. It’s a riot of feathers and sparkle, with designers Robert Jones and Tom Rogers going all out on the costumes.
The foil to Lola’s otherworldly glamour is the everyman character Charlie Price (normally performed by 2010 X Factor winner Matt Cardle, however resulting from sickness, by understudy Liam Doyle on the evening I watch). Charlie is likable, directionless, pulled again dwelling from London by the demise of his father to reluctantly take over the ailing household enterprise. An opportunity encounter with Lola and her buddies results in a mad scheme to avoid wasting the manufacturing facility, and a little bit of tradition conflict comedy. Kinky Boots approaches gender and sexuality in a heat, good-humoured approach, and flippantly explores themes of fathers and sons, expectations and acceptance.
Harvey Fierstein’s ebook presents a truthful quantity of “tell don’t show” alongside the best way. “We may have been born in a small factory town but I sure as hell don’t intend to stay!” Charlie’s fiance explains. Cyndi Lauper’s lyrics have pop music predictability, though you couldn’t name her paean to stilettos apparent (Sex Is within the Heel). The poppy/rocky vitality of Lauper’s songs drives the present, and proves that in case you repeat a riff sufficient it begins to get anthemic, even when they’re not tunes for the ages.
Director Nikolai Foster has everybody do and say the appropriate issues, however the present doesn’t have sufficient moments that carry past the literal. When that does occur – for instance, when Lola and blokeish antagonist Don (Billy Roberts) are about to duke it out in a boxing match, however first launch into a temporary, sizzlingly confrontational pasodoble, the stage lights up.
Radebe isn’t a educated actor, and though he has a wealthy tone to his voice, singing doesn’t come as naturally to him as dancing. But the stratospheric charisma he has when he’s transferring is uncommon: full beam on the viewers, his face animates each second, and he throws some Latin aptitude into Leah Hill’s upfront and versatile choreography. In distinction, Radebe delivers a transferring rendition of Not My Father’s Son in virtually stillness, eyes closed, and it’s a heartfelt second.
There’s full-throttle assist from Courtney Bowman as manufacturing facility employee Lauren and Scott Paige as foreman George (he’s humorous, nails the low notes and has an surprising sideline in sass). It’s an gratifying evening out, and a brilliantly unlikely story, however when it comes to the craft of musical theatre, Kinky Boots leans in the direction of the pedestrian.
