Put Your Best Foot Forward For Kinky Boots!
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Emma McNamara
If you want to see a show with all the glitz and glamour of a cabaret show, but with a touching and heartfelt storyline at the same time, Kinky Boots is the show for you. It follows Charlie Price, the owner of a dwindling shoe factory in Northampton and his life getting turned upside down when he meets a drag queen named Lola. Together the two come together and decide to create a new way of keeping the factory alive – a range of stiletto heels made specifically for men.
As a fan of seeing shows multiple times, this was my second visit to Kinky Boots and if anything, the show has got even better and sexier than before. For me, much of the light-hearted delight of the show is brought by Amy Lennox who plays Lauren – a woman who works at the shoe factory. A character who many women will recognise within themselves, Lauren is a fierce and sassy go-getter who can only be slowed down by one thing – a crush. However she is quick to pick herself back up in the song ‘History of Wrong Guys’. Lennox owns this song, bringing one of the funniest scenes in the whole show.
A character I’m not too much a fan of is Charlie – it’s probably just me but his whiny attitude and dull nature are off-putting and uninteresting, however that’s not to say that Killian Donnelly isn’t anything less than absolutely stunning. A particular highlight of the entire show is Charlie’s ‘Soul of A Man’, which Donnelly unquestionably shines in and has given me goosebumps on both occasions I’ve seen the show. Donnelly does an outstanding job of making a drab and unlikable character actually quite impressive.
Matt Henry as Lola absolutely steals the show. All her solo songs are incredible, with ‘Land of Lola’ making you laugh to ‘Hold Me in Your Heart’ making you bawl your eyes out. Furthermore, my jealousy towards Henry being able to even walk, let alone dance in those stilettos 8 times a week is completely forgotten when you realise how well he rocks all of Lola’s costumes – your can’t take your eyes off her and you have no problems with that!
It is impossible to walk away from Kinky Boots without feeling a certain kind of delight, which the finale ‘Raise You Up/Just Be’ gives you. Both times I have seen the show I ended up strutting to the train station as if it was me wearing those red stiletto boots, with my friends doing the exact same. Kinky Boots aims to tell you to ‘let pride be your guide’ which it succeeds with ten fold – I have never experienced a more uplifting and feel-good musical – a must see for absolutely everyone!