I had the pleasure of seeing Kinky Boots on its opening night at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. While it was a fun show, it could’ve used a heel to help raise it up. Right off the bat, the show suffered a bit from not having an active protagonist. Charlie doesn’t want to continue in the family business, but there isn’t really anything he does want. It makes it hard to identify with him and engage fully in the show. 

That Charlie doesn’t particularly have a passion of his own makes me wonder if the show would be served better by simply having him be passionate about the shoe business and desperate to save a failing business. Because, without a specific passion, it seems that the only reason Charlie can’t want to go into the shoe business is because – for the show – he needs to have something in common with Lola/Simon: that their fathers both pushed them to be something they didn’t want to be. But if that commonality is really necessary, perhaps it could’ve been Charlie’s father who wasn’t passionate about shoes, who wanted something more out of life, but got stuck. Perhaps he has a specific career goal for his son to aspire to. But sentimental Charlie who appreciates the value of his family’s business to his small town wants to stay put. In an era of back-to-basics hipsters, when twenty-somethings with MBAs are becoming famers, perhaps thats even a more contemporary take. Just a thought.

A pair of kinky boots designed by the audience as part of an interactive art project in the theatre lobby.

Another story problem comes at the end when Charlie is determined to resist the ideas of drag queens modeling his kinky boots in Milan. This makes no sense. The product was specially designed to support the weight of men. If anything, it would seem that professional fashion models in Milan would be the thing to make him look like a laughing stock and, also, do nothing to help sell his product. Having the drag queens present saves him money – which he desperately needs – and will surely get him tons of free publicity. In a way, it seems like the only reason Charlie is really resisting is because there needs to be some conflict at the end. Unfortunately, this conflict between Charlie and Lola isn’t even ever resolved face-to-face. It feels very heavy-handed. Might it be simpler if it’s just agreed upon that the drag queens will model?  They all go to Milan, but then one of the drag queens gets sick or breaks a leg and they desperately need someone to fill in. The shoe size of the model that’s bailed happens to be Charlie’s shoe size and Lola and Lauren encourage him to fill in. Charlie resists the idea, is willing to cancel the show rather than embarrass himself like that. Lola and Lauren tell him its time to put his money where his mouth is… if he really respects Lola and cares about the business… Then, when Charlie steps on stage in kinky boots, it’s not just played for laughs, it’s the end of Charlie’s character arc and a real emotional win.

As for the show’s lyrics, they’re rather on the nose for my taste. That being said, though, between the loud music, the British-ish accents and the singing not being quite in synch, it was often difficult to hear exactly what anyone was singing… or saying.

This show did have some fun upbeat dance numbers, but they did rely a lot on the gimmick of men in drag. One number had two fabulous flips, but that was it. Then no more acrobatics. The final number succeeded in having lots of leggy moves to show off the kinky boots, but the earlier number with the treadmills fell short. It seemed inspired by the OkGo music video, but they may have been better off just pulling the choreography move-for-move from the video. The show didn’t really use the treadmills to their potential for all the trouble of having them on stage and able to be danced on. It’s too bad. It feels weird and sad that a music video would have better choreography than a Broadway show.

While I applaud the show’s mission of getting the audience to grow in the same way that the character of Don did, coming to accept transvestites, I worry that the show may also be spreading a bit of misinformation. There are a couple of times during the show when the MC of the show within the show addresses the audience as “Ladies and Gentlemen and those of you who have yet to decide.” It gets a reliable titter from the conservative audience, but it seems inaccurate. Transvestites are men who choose to dress as women. Transgendered people have the body of one sex and the brain of another. In neither case is it that the individual is uncertain or wishy-washy. They know who they are, they just happen to be different than “mainstream” society. I worry that the show is mischaracterizing these folks at the same time that they’re working to get them accepted and am not sure whether the “two steps forward, one step back” model is preferable to “one accurate step forward at a time.”

At the end, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The characters were getting applause (not the actors). While the actor who played Don gave a fine performance, it was nothing outstanding or extraordinary, and yet, he got an exceptional amount of applause, which I can only attribute to the audience wanting to reinforce his turn: from being close-minded and judgmental to accepting Lola for who she is.