Kinky Boots is by far the most recent musical I’m covering this month. Twenty-two years separate it from the last, and along with it, numerous changes in the development and culture of musicals themselves. This was not a choice by design, Kinky Boots was merely a popular musical that had a good filmed version readily available. But it is a fortunate one. Because Kinky Boots is really a staple modern musical, indicative of what a lot of modern musicals are trying to be and to achieve.
For one thing, it is a good example of a relatively new phenomenon, one that didn’t really exist when Phantom of the Opera or Jesus Christ Superstar or Miss Saigon premiered: the musical based on a movie. Shows like The Lion King and The Producers can arguably be pointed to as having started the trend, but the last decade especially has been inundated with so many musicals based off of movies that it’s become a cliché. Rarely does anyone ever ask for them and yet here they are, musicals based off of Mean Girls, School of Rock, Catch Me if You Can, Rocky, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, Little Miss Sunshine, Freaky Friday, A Christmas Story, Groundhog Day, Ghost, Amelie, Elf, even Back to the Future. They are almost universally lesser products than the movies they are adapted from and can’t help but stink of cynicism -cheap attempts to get people to go to the theatre by invoking something audiences already like. They’re the equivalent of Disney live-action remakes (and of course many of these ARE Disney shows). Kinky Boots is the right kind of movie-to-stage adaptation in my opinion, merely because it’s based on a movie people haven’t seen. Like another critically acclaimed musical from 2011, Once, its’ source is a little-known film from the U.K. that Broadway audiences had likely never heard of; and thus it isn’t bound by either association or expectation the way a show called Beetlejuice would be. Indeed Kinky Boots the show has far surpassed Kinky Boots the movie in broad recognition, going on to win a number of Tonys, including for Best Musical.
It was written by Harvey Fierstein in collaboration with Cyndi Lauper of all people on the music and lyrics. Two very American popular figures creating a show set in Northampton, and yet in spite of that it doesn’t feel insufficiently British in its story of the owner of a floundering shoe factory constantly in the shadow of his late father teaming up with a London drag queen to corner the market on fashionable womens’ boots for men. It’s all apparently loosely based on a true story that was documented on the British series Trouble at the Top in 1999, because it’s too unique a story not to be. The show explicitly presents Charlie and Lola as two sides of the same coin in the expectations put upon them, their ambitions, and the complicated relationships they have towards their fathers, with a very basic overarching message of putting aside differences and coming together in understanding and friendship. It’s simple, perhaps shallow by today’s standards, but it was quite important back in 2011 -when Broadway still didn’t have much LGBTQ representation outside of Rent, drag queens weren’t quite as culturally popular as they are now, and broad gestures in media and storytelling really meant something. What I’m saying is, I liked it.
I just about knew I was going to like it from the opening number “The Most Beautiful Thing”, which in addition to being quite catchy, introduced the dichotomy between its two leads as children really sweetly I felt. From there the show does a very good job building the central relationship, which during the first act I found remarkably wholesome. Contrary to what I might have expected going in, Charlie was not bigoted towards Lola, nor even all that uncomfortable around her as he might have been. He comes to her aid, finds out she’s a drag queen, seems to accept that, and soon they’re talking shoes. It was a solid foundation to a friendship and partnership, and at least for the first act, is bereft of prejudice, or if it is there, is well-meaning. Of course late in the show there’s a stressed out explosion from Charlie that results in some vile homophobia being unleashed, and you can debate whether it is possible to come back from that the way the show ultimately illustrates, but I was surprised and relieved that it wasn’t the norm the whole way through. The high points of Kinky Boots are often scenes between these two characters, and especially the bit where they share a heart to heart after an out-of-drag Lola as Simon is made to feel ashamed by some of the factorys’ more asshole workers.
The show definitely has a bit of a naïve streak concerning homophobia. Every homophobic character, namely resident tough guy Don (and again, arguably Charlie) is depicted as coming around ultimately and accepting Lola for who she is -another theme stated outright in the show. I understand the problematic undertones of that idea, especially in an age when changing minds on such things is an extremely unrealistic expectation, at least not in such an easy way as Kinky Boots shows. One would have to wonder even with just one Don, why Lola would stay in Northampton on this job where she’s discriminated against. It’s not a whole lot better for that than movies like Green Book. But this was a musical produced in 2011, a different climate, and so I feel I can’t begrudge it too much for putting forward a hopeful fantasy in its all-out celebration of being yourself. Just as I can’t dismiss Hamiltons’ optimistic spirit and subversive portrait of the American founding fathers because of the environment it first came out in.
Lola herself I think is worth discussing more, and the way the show represents drag queens. I’m not a fan of drag shows myself, but I am friends with a lot of people who are, so I do have a reference point for drag culture. To my estimation, Kinky Boots, though undeniably a co-opting of that form of entertainment, replicates it very well. A number of the songs performed by Lola and her back-up angels (all of whom are also drag queens) are explicitly in that broad style, and Lola herself always maintains a camp confidence and self-assurance. The show openly analyzes her drag identity, which some might take issue with, defining it as a way for her to exercise these things. We see that Simon is somewhat timid and non-confrontational (though thanks to his father, he’s a champion boxer); only through Lola can he express himself. This might be a conflation of drag performance with gender dysphoria, but I’m not educated enough to get into that. Suffice it to say, transgender identity is not brought up much -and where it is is in a couple outdated stereotypes.
Regardless, I think Lola is an interesting character, and Matt Henry (following in the not inconsiderable footsteps of the Tony-winning Billy Porter) is really good. He has all the enthusiasm and energy necessary for the part, and performs every song with gusto. It’s a big performance that overshadows any of the others, though Killian Donnelly as Charlie is often impressive too. He’s best when he’s singing the humbler numbers to Lola’s showy ones. There are definitely some songs that don’t register much or are just kind of poor (“Everybody Say Yeah” and “What a Woman Wants” come to mind). But they’re offset by camp numbers like “Land of Lola” or “Sex is in the Heel”, which seem aimed directly at drag fans; and the really good ones, “Not My Fathers’ Son”, “The History of the Wrong Guys”, and the boisterous show-closing “Raise You Up”. And that’s exactly the kind of range I’d expect from a series of songs by Cyndi Lauper.
The production I saw was recorded I don’t know when, but released last year onto the BroadwayHD streaming platform, and it certainly seems to present the show in its best context. It was also one of the better recordings I’ve seen so far, a welcome relief after the awfulness of the Miss Saigon show. In many ways it reminded me of Hamilton, or The Phantom of Opera, albeit in a far less grandiose theatre. The camera knew when to stay fixed, cut to new angles with naturalness, avoided copious close-ups, and wasn’t afraid of the conventions of theatre -it even goes into the audience on a couple occasions. Aside from a few weird editing choices here and there and a couple shots of Lola from behind which don’t really work in this kind of format (unless perhaps its’ the curtain call), it was a very well done job. Which is why I was taken aback at the credits, where Brett Sullivan was revealed to be the director -the same guy who directed Miss Saigon! Now it’s entirely possible he learned something in the three or four years between productions or that the stage director of Kinky Boots had a hand on how the filmed version should be presented, or maybe even that Miss Saigon was more Cameron Mackintosh’s fault all along, but Sullivans’ work is a stark improvement here.
And Kinky Boots itself is one of the strongest shows I’ve seen this month. Its’ got a lot of heart and good intentions, if it doesn’t hold up in some respects and isn’t as relevant as it was nine years ago. But I think Fierstein was really smart in noting the complete uniqueness of the story when he decided to adapt this little-known British film. The sleek red boots have very quickly become an iconic Broadway staple. And with drag queens now more popular than ever, I’m sure Kinky Boots will remain a musical theatre mainstay for the foreseeable future.
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