Review of Kinky Boots
By June Santini
Kinky Boots
Auditorium Theatre
May 12- 17, 2015
If Kinky Boots can’t raise you up into a happy state, there may be no hope for you. Cindy Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s Tony Award winning musical is one of the most fun shows I’ve seen. The toe-tapping romp through a shoe factory on the brink of financial failure may not restore your faith in humanity, but you’ll certainly be humming its tunes the next day.
The show takes place in Northampton, England, and the story is reminiscent to another great musical, Billy Elliott, in both setting and theme. The two main characters, Charlie Price, played by Steven Booth, and Lola/Simon, played by J Harrison Ghee, must work together to save the factory and find their true paths while learning to accept everyone as they are. The show explores what happens when a father’s dreams and a son’s ambition take two radically different paths.
Charlie Price was born into a long line of men who have a passion for making shoes. Charlie does not share this passion and escapes to London, where he meets Lola, a Drag Queen who finds herself in need of a new pair of boots, boots with a heel strong enough to support a man’s weight. After the untimely death of Charlie’s father, he inherits the factory and all of its woes. He valiantly attempts to save the jobs of the workers by filling a niche market for those boots.
The standout of the show was J Harrison Ghee who commanded the attention of everyone in the audience with his statuesque beauty and spot-on vocals. His troop of Angels brought high energy to the production numbers, while the factory workers provided some comic relief as well as being the main source of conflict. Solid performances by the entire cast made the musical numbers so much fun to watch.
Recommended for kids 10 and up?
Officially, the recommendation is that Kinky Boots is appropriate for age 10 and up. I think, however, that you should leave the younger kids at home for this show. Mature teens over the age of 14 or 15 who are ready to deal with themes of gender identity and overt sexuality will appreciate it, though. That being said, everyone can learn a little acceptance and understanding from this show. After all, as factory worker Don finally learns, “You can change the world when you change your mind.”
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June Santini is Vice President of Operations at KidsOutandAbout.com