Kinky Boots: The Musical

Charlie Price inherits a shoe factory in Northampton and finds the business close to collapse. Traditional men's shoes are not selling. In London he meets a drag performer named Lola and identifies a gap: there are no high heeled boots built to hold a man's weight for the people working the drag circuit. The factory changes its line. Brett Sullivan directs. This is a recording of the stage production, filmed without cuts at the Adelphi Theatre in London and shown in cinemas. Cyndi Lauper wrote the music and lyrics and Harvey Fierstein the book. The stage production won six Tonys on Broadway including best musical, and Lauper became the first woman to win the Tony for best score alone. The story has a real source. A shoe factory in Northampton called W. J. Brookes began making boots for the drag market in the nineties in order not to close, which became the subject of a BBC documentary and then of a 2005 film. The strongest thing in it is Lola, whose relationship with her father sits at the centre and which the musical takes on directly. Who it is for: musical theatre audiences and anyone interested in the filmed performance format. Who it is not for: this is a theatre recording, not a film; the camera language is limited and the narrative slows in the second act.