Book: Harvey Fierstein
Music & Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper
Director: Nikolai Foster
Truth be told, the first time that Kinky Boots strutted into the West End was a disappointment, but Nickolai Foster’s new production feels like a different show completely. The publicity cheekily suggests that the musical has been ‘rebooted’ and now at last everything works, especially Cyndi Lauper’s songs. Featuring stellar performances from Strictly icon Johannes Radebe and X Factor winner Matt Cardle, the red high-heel boots are finally good for walking.
From the opening number, The Most Beautiful Thing, to the rousing finale, Raise You Up, Kinky Boots fills the enormous auditorium of the London Coliseum with attitude and joy. And Radebe’s surprise entrance is worth the ticket price alone. He completely embodies the sassy character of Lola, the drag queen in need of new shoes. Purring like Eartha Kitt, he is hypnotic as he shimmies and salsas around the stage. Occasionally, his lyrics are hard to decipher, but his stage presence makes up for any shortcomings in his vocals.
Matt Cardle, however, clearly shows why he beat One Direction in the X-Factor finals. His voice, with the occasional falsetto, sounds amazing in his solo in the second half, the epic Soul Of A Man. Cardle, who stepped into Killian Donnelly’s role as Huey in the much-missed Memphis: The Musical now finds himself stepping into Donnelly’s shoes again as it was the latter who first played reluctant shoe-factory owner Charlie Price in the original production of Kinky Boots in 2016. Perhaps Cardle is a little too unassuming as Charlie, who decides to make high-heeled boots for men to save the factory’s fortunes, but the character’s meekness is the perfect balance to Lola’s flamboyance.
One of the problems with the original production was that the story often sidelined queer issues as the narrative focused on the failing relationship between Charlie and his parvenu fiancée. In Foster’s production, we still learn nothing about Lola’s romantic life, but the appearance of the rainbow flag foregrounds the queer politics of the musical, especially pertinent today when trans identities are under attack.
Some of this queer stance also comes from Radebe himself, fierce and glamorous when he’s in drag, quiet and humble when he’s in male clothes. His and Cardle’s duet I Am Not My Father’s Son is a song for the ages, deftly telling the familiar story of not meeting parents’ expectations. However, the rest of the numbers are joyous, especially the group number Sex Is In The Heel, and The History Of Wrong Guys performed brilliantly by Courtney Bowman as factory worker Lauren.
Scott Paige is hilarious as foreman George, who becomes surprisingly attached to the red heels, and Billy Roberts gives an excellent performance as Dan, who’s emasculated when he discovers that he must construct women’s shoes for men. The ensemble – both the other factory workers and Lola’s dancers, the Angels – work really hard, but it also seems effortless, particularly when they are dancing Leah Hill’s snappy choreography.
There’s not a weak link at all, and it’s all played on Robert Jones’s detailed yet unflashy factory floor with only a few pyrotechnics adding to Lola’s sequins. Radebe and Cardle knock this Kinky Boots out of the park. Let them walk all over you.
Runs until 11 July 2026
