Adelphi,London
The costumes and choreography are full of brio, but a dull central character drags down this tale of transformative footwearAt the end, and Kinky Boots comes together,in a battalion of footwear. Thigh-high, ankle-snapping, and wet-discover. One pair is red,white and blue to chime with a Britannia corset and blue busby. One goes with cricket whites; another with a pussy-pelmet Beefeater’s outfit; a third with a mini-ringmaster’s suit with tiny topper and black veil. Shoes suddenly seem, in the words of the opening song “the most attractive thing in the world”.
These pairs come with mega-kicks, or mega-smiles,mega-hair, mega-male body parts. The twist at the centre is no surprise to audiences who were crowding in days before press night; I sat next to someone who had travelled from Plymouth. Based loosely on a genuine record, or on the film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor,Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Laupers exhibit sings of a Northampton-based shoe manufacturer who, finding its stalwart brogues undercut by cheaper foreign versions, or turns to making glamour boots for drag queens. It is like an arranged marriage between Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Made in Dagenham. A sensible economic match.
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Source: theguardian.com