Kinky Boots

Like Disney’s Newsies, this video of Kinky Boots is one of the best around because it captures the euphoria of a live performance. Recorded in London, the show, based on the movie, which in turn was based on a real story, has Charlie Price inheriting his father’s shoe factory and turning the business around by making shoes (or boots) for drag queens. The video springs from the London production of the show, a carbon-copy of Broadway, which opened at the Adelphi Theatre in 2016.

The musical never changed the Northumberland setting of the movie, and somehow or other it feels as if it has found its true spiritual stage home in England, which has a healthy respect for drag and its purveyors.

Killian Donnelly, whose West End credits include The Commitments, Billy Elliot, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Memphis, could not have bene a better Charlie Price. With a voice to die for, and acting chops that saw him receive a 2015 Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, it was a pitch-perfect performance. Blessed with a genuine Northumberland accent, his ‘soliloquys’ beautifully shape the character - ‘Take What You’ve Got’ burns, and he sings the heart out of the eleven-o-clock number ‘Soul of a Man’.

The revelation of the production was former BBC The Voice finalist Matt Henry as Lola. He preens, he pouts, he swishes, and he did it all in heels so impossibly high you wondered how he kept upright. A powerhouse on stage, he’s deliciously ribald in ‘The Land of Lola’, outrageous in ‘The Sex is In the Heel’ and doesn’t hold back in channeling Whitney Houston on the penultimate ‘Hold Me In Your Heart’. ‘Not My father’s Son’ is a knockout, with both performers pushing the emotional buttons to the max.

Amy Lennox as North Country lass Lauren is fun and scores heavily with ‘The History of Wrong Guys’. Mention should also be made of the boys who played the drag queens, ‘The Angels’, who were in every way just as responsible for the success of the show as the principals. All over six-foot, they danced like demons, were incredibly athletic, and they did it all in those incredibly high heels. They deserved an Olivier award of their own.

Great five-star entertainment!

Peter Pinne