Review: Kinky Boots
The drag musical Kinky Boots is an explosive celebration of diversity that no one should miss
Drag art is very in at the moment. A strong example of this is the American show RuPaul’s Drag Race, which year after year grabs prestigious television industry awards. The show is looking for the next drag star in the United States and it has gained tremendous popularity around the world.
According to Jarkko Valde, a long-time Finnish drag artist, the Finnish drag scene is also very abundant at the moment. The Helsinki City Theatre’s version of the internationally acclaimed musical Kinky Boots is a good example of this.
Kinky Boots is a joyful, colorful, touching, harrowing story about difference, friendship, breaking boundaries and accepting others. Already when the performance began on a gray, rainy Tuesday evening, it was clear that the next couple of hours would be of perfect, mind-blowing quality and praise. From start to finish.
Petrus Kähkönen plays Charlie, the son of a shoe factory owner, who is reluctantly forced to continue his father’s life’s work when he dies. As the factory struggles with serious financial problems, Charlie is already desperately about to close down operations and lay off all employees, until he unexpectedly meets the sparkling drag queen Lola, played by Lauri Mikkola.
To save his factory, Charlie comes up with the idea of starting to make great boots. Boots with a spiked heel that can withstand the weight of an adult man.
The stage chemistry between Kähkönen and Mikkola works incredibly well: the audience cheers on and sympathizes with the budding friendship of the unusual duo, which becomes one of the most touching elements of the musical.
One of the most beautiful scenes of the show is when Lola, real name Simon, arrives at the factory wearing a men’s suit to fit in better. The man, who previously appeared in women’s clothes, is once again only ridiculed and flees to the bathroom to hide from his critics. Charlie arrives to comfort his friend, who opens up about his painful past and difficulties with diversity in the song Kuin poikansa en ois.
Although Kähkönen plays a convincing and humorous role as the self-searching descendant of a shoe factory owner, Mikkola is the driving force behind the performance. The man’s stage charisma is wonderful to watch, which I would have loved to watch even through the night.
Mikkola rose to fame with the first season of The Voice of Finland. The artist has said in interviews that he had no background in the drag world before Kinky Boots. This feels absolutely incredible, because when he is on stage, Mikkola looks like he was born wearing high heels and a sequin evening dress. Mikkola’s singing also enchants with its power and purity.
For example, the song On korko sexkkäin would have been hoped to continue throughout the evening, as Mikkola, who performed as Lola, and her drag queen group Enkelit captured the attention completely. Cold shivers rolled, endlessly. The performance of Mikkola and the Enkeli group is not only natural, it is moving in many ways.
The group of angels includes, among others, actor Cristoffer Strandberg, who will also be seen on TV in the soon-to-be-launched Putous. His grip as an Angel gives reason to expect a lot of spectacle on television as well.
Overall, the Angels act as a spectacular group and fantastic individuals, even though none of them are professional drag queens. In addition to Strandberg, Tomi Lappi, Henri Sarajärvi, Anton Bergström, Paavo Kääriäinen and Jero Mäkeläinen show that you can do more than just look beautiful in heels: show off your self-confidence, acrobatic skills and praise the magnificence of difference.
The ensemble of factory workers also provided an impressive, energetic and high-quality addition to the performance, which flowed smoothly forward throughout the evening.
The musical was also particularly impressed by its staging. I’ve seen a few musicals in London and I’ve always admired their inventive and flamboyant sets. At Kinky Boots, I saw for the first time in Finland sets of that level, which easily transformed from one milieu to another and offered their performers a great platform to shine.
At the end of the performance, almost the entire audience gave a standing ovation, and I’ve heard that the same thing has been repeated on the big stage of the Helsinki City Theatre night after night. And this is not surprising at all.
The message of Kinky Boots in this world is important and big: being a drag queen, or anything else, doesn’t mean putting yourself in one box and staying there. Remembering this doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t take away from anyone in any way.
At least I’m okay with the fact that I’ll never be as insane and gorgeous as those men who blew my mind on stage and praised differences.