Kinky Boots – Bradford Alhambra

KINKY Boots tells the story of Charlie from Northampton, played by Joel Harper-Jackson, who goes against the tradition of joining his family’s shoemaking business and moves to London.

Tragedy soon strikes and Charlie inherits the factory that he resisted joining.  

He then faces the decision of firing all of the people who have worked in the family company for four generations, or returning to a life of leather and and finding a way to save the failing company.  

Enter Simon from Clacton, or as he is more commonly known Lola, a cabaret performer and drag queen who along with her Angels goes against convention, and bemoan the fact that they cannot find a heel which will stand up to them.

Charlie and Lola come together to design a killer boot that will fill the niche market of drag queens, and they plan to sell it on the Milan catwalks.

I found Kinky Boots to be a bit underwhelming and slow-paced even though it was peppered with music composed by Cyndi Lauper.  The songs tried to be upbeat however often failed to hit the mark. 

Although the story was present it did not seem to flow, and seemed to chop and change a little bit with no real continuity. 

This was evident in the sudden crush that factory worker Lauren suddenly developed on Charlie, but rather than a nice romance it was just thrown in at a couple of points and ended up in a rather unexplainable kiss. 

There were some good dance numbers, in particular the dancing upon the travellators which certainly wowed the audience.  However through the rest of the musical there were no stand-out performances.

I found Kinky Boots to be entertaining, just a little flat – but judging by the audience reaction I was perhaps in the minority.

* Until October 26, visit bradford-theatres.co.uk or call 01274 432000 to book tickets.

Katrina Knights