Review: Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots musical about friendship, difference and self-acceptance

A stage full of drag queens, amazing heels, the encounter of two different worlds, friendship and difference. Spectacularity, joy and catchy music. All this and a lot of message is the Helsinki City Theatre’s Kinky Boots musical.

The musical is based on the true story of a struggling shoe factory, whose fifth generation is faced with the truth: quit, lay off all familiar employees and try to find some other solution. It comes by chance when the current owner, Charlie Priece (Petrus Kähkönen), tries to save Lola/Simon (Lauri Mikkola) from trouble. That is the beginning of the friendship between these two different men. Lola is a drag queen who moved to London. Charlie hires Lola as a designer at his shoe factory to design spectacular but high-quality boots for other drag queens, the kind women only dream of. The goal is to be able to present the collection at the Milan Shoe Fair.

Alongside this plot runs a deeper theme: friendship, difference and acceptance.

Kinky Boots has gained great popularity on Broadway, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Manila, etc. – around the world. And now it makes us Finns happy.

The script of the musical is by Harvey Fierstein. The lyrics of the swinging music and songs are written by the well-known composer, singer and producer Cyndi Lauper. Hanna Kaila and Kari Arffman have done a good job of translating the lyrics and lyrics of the songs into Finnish.

Petrus Kähkönen is a believable Charlie, a struggling young owner. And Lauri Mikkola’s Simon / Lola is absolutely delicious, a real drag! A wonderful revelation with attitude and sensitivity. Both main actors sing well. You can’t help but admire the dance of Lola’s angels (Anton Engström, Paavo Kääriäinen, Tomi Lappi, Jero Mäkeläinen, Henri Sarajärvi and Christoffer Strandber) in high heels. An incredible achievement!

Tuomas Lampinen’s costume design (especially drag costumes), camouflage and hairstyle design (Henri Karjalainen) and the orchestra deserve thanks.

The whole performance is entertaining, touching and pleasing to the eye, but it also makes you think. So it’s not just nonsense.

I was at the premiere to see this performance and I have to say that there was also something to see in the audience: countless drag queens in their characters: Lenita, Paula Koivuniemi, Katri Helena, Lea Laven, Marion, etc. In addition, many other members of the audience had also invested in clothing: sequins, high heels (also for men) and, above all, hair devices that look like drags.

The audience was dressed spectacularly. I felt underdressed and modestly made up, even though the makeup had been done by a professional.
When the working group of the performance came to thank us at the end, everyone had huge interest rates, whether they were men or women. True indulgence.

The audience at the premiere was not as reserved as it often is: the audience lived along, applauded enthusiastically, and at the end the entire audience stood up to give a standing ovation, stomped and clapped for a long time. And not without reason. The performance was magnificent!

This was a wonderful theatre opening of the autumn season!