The City Theatre’s musical Kinky Boots rose to phenomenal popularity after its premiere
Helsinki City Theatre’s new autumn musical Kinky Boots took off after its premiere on 30 August. Ticket sales are hot and the audience is standing up for their applause at the performances.
Almost 90 per cent of Kinky Boots‘ autumn tickets have been sold and reserved, about 40,000 tickets. In the week after the first premiere alone, a record 12,750 tickets were sold. The musical will continue in the repertoire during the spring of 2019, and next week the performances in January and February will go on sale.
“Kinky Boots has received a hugely enthusiastic reception from both audiences and critics. At the premiere, the audience gave a standing ovation, and the same has actually been repeated in every performance so far. Before its premiere, the work, which was relatively unknown in Finland, took off at a tremendous pace as soon as audiences arrived. As far as I know, this is the highest weekly sales in the history of the Helsinki City Theatre for the week after the premiere of the musical,” says theatre director Kari Arffman.
“When making repertoire decisions, you never know what kind of social debate you will be in at the time of the premiere of the work. This time we really hit the right time with the topic. The musical is about accepting one’s own differences and what it means to be a man and a woman. The topic now seems to hit and touch everyone. There are different generations in the hall, different people who want to experience the same thing. We have also gained a completely new audience, which is important for the future of the theatre. In addition to the subject matter, the quality of the work has also contributed to the success. After the renovation of the theatre building, we have focused on developing processes, and as a result, we were now able to create a high-quality, honestly Broadway-level performance, the content of which the entire working group and the entire HKT can proudly stand behind,” Arffman continues.
The award-winning musical Kinky Boots (2013), composed by pop icon Cyndi Lauper and written by musical guru Harvey Fierstein, celebrates difference, friendship and overcoming prejudice. The musical is directed by rising star director Samuel Harjanne, who is pursuing an international career. Set in England in the early 2000s, the musical stars Petrus Kähkönen (Charlie), a multi-talented musician known from many HKT musicals, and Lauri Mikkola (Lola/Simon), who is visiting the City Theatre for the first time and has made his musical theatre warm-up breakthrough with Kinky Boots.
The other roles in the musical include Raili Raitala (Nicola), Anna Victoria Eriksson (Lauren), Tero Koponen (Don), Joachim Wigelius (George) and Tomi Lappi, Henri Sarajärvi, Christoffer Sandberg, Anton Engström, Paavo Kääriäinen and Jero Mäkeläinen as Lola’s drag angels.
The conductor of the 10-piece orchestra is Eeva Kontu , and the choreographies for the 34-piece ensemble are designed by Gunilla Olsson-Karlsson. The set design is by Peter Ahlqvist and the costumes by Tuomas Lampinen. William Iles is responsible for the lighting design and Kai Poutanen for the sound design. The camouflage and hairstyles were designed by Henri Karjalainen.
Watch the videos:
Kinky Boots premiere
Kinky Boots trailer
Behind the Boots
The premiere of the musical Kinky Boots was on 30.8.2018 on the big stage of the Helsinki City Theatre.
Ticket sales for the performances in January-February 2019 will start on Monday 24.9.2018 at 9 a.m.
Tickets 34 € – 78 € (sis.pm)