I first watched the Kinky Boots film when I was in first year of university in 2013, when I attended a film night with the LGBT+ Society. Since then, it’s been one of my all-time favourite films. So when it was announced ages ago that they were turning it into a stage musical with music written by Cyndi Lauper, I was both excited and apprehensive. It’s always nerve-racking when one of your favourite things is being adapted, so I wanted to see what they did with it.
Fast forward to it being in London’s West End and then also on Broadway, with people as big as Brendan Urie playing the main role, and I still didn’t get a chance to get to London and see it. Then a while ago it closed in London, and I thought that was my last chance blown. So when I found out it was going on tour and coming to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, I was over the moon!
Often, when I book to see a show, I listen to the soundtrack so I get an idea of the songs and the story of the show. Some people don’t like doing this, but I like doing it because it makes seeing the songs on stage in person more exciting! However, before seeing this show, I listened to the OBC recording and I just couldn’t listen to it because the English accents were just SO BAD. I cringed listening to some of the fake accents so much that I just couldn’t listen to the songs. It seems to be widely known though, even by Americans, that the accents are bad, so at least it’s not just me! So if you plan on listening to the soundtrack now that the show has closed, maybe be aware of that.
Luckily, seeing the West End cast was obviously better because the cast were all British, so it didn’t have the accent issue. And most of the songs were actually so good! I loved some of them, but there were some songs I wasn’t a big fan of, and I think that was partly down to the fact that I wasn’t a big lover of the voices of the people singing them. Mostly though, they were a lot of fun, and a great effort for Cyndi Lauper’s first show she’s written.
The story and the characters were so close to the film, which I was very happy about. It was basically exactly the same story, even with some of the same lines of dialogue from the film, so I loved that. The film is quite theatrical in itself with all the songs and performances, so I think it must have been a pretty easy one to adapt for the stage!
There were a couple of differences. For example, when Lola was not in her drag queen persona, she was a lot more flamboyant than how Chiwitel Ejiofor plays the character in the film. They also made Lauren a lot different – they made her the comic relief of the show, which was definitely a good change and made everyone laugh. I love how shy and understated Lauren is in the film, but I think her chance of personality in the show was much needed to lighten the atmosphere amongst some of the slightly heavier scenes.
Kinky Boots is one of those shows that makes you feel so happy, and it’s almost impossible to leave at the end without a huge smile on your face and at least one of the songs stuck in your head. If you want to compare it to the film, it definitely does a wonderful job of adapting it for the stage. But if you know nothing about the film, it’s a wonderful show on its own that everyone needs to see!
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