I saw the musical Kinky Boots and it was pretty good. The show was first played in Helsinki, which is a lot closer to me, but for some reason I completely forgot about it. So I had to travel all way to Tampere. The bus ride was two hours and ten minutes, so it was not that bad. I traveled with my friend Pipsa, with whom I had visited London few years ago. I had heard a lot praise from the musical, and one of my friends say that it was one of the best musicals she had ever seen. I did not want to be spoiled, so I had not read the plot, read any reviews or listened any music from the soundtrack. If I'm being honest, I did not really like the main plot. The whole idea of a shoe company going bankrupt and then starting to make shoes for drag queens felt a bit silly for me. I don't know why, but for some reason a plot like that did not really fit a musical. I also did not really like how many talking moments there were in the musical.
Kinky Boots is a musical written by Geoff Dean and Tim Firth based on 2005 movie of the same name. Music is composed by Cyndi Lauper. The songs were good, but most of them were not that memorable. I found the officially filmed Broadway production but I did not watch it fully. I'm not saying I did not enjoy the musical, because I did, but somehow the musical did not strike me that hard.
The best part of the musical was easily Lola (Lauri Mikkola) and his Angels. Lola was just amazing, I loved every second he was on stage. I have actually never been to a drag show, and this just proved I would love to go to one - Pipsa and I actually talked about going to a drag show in Helsinki. His song What a Woman Wants became one of my favorites. The Angels were also great. Their dancing on high heels was fascinating, and they were so fun. What confused me was what when they were singing, there was also females in the chorus, which to me did not make any sense.
The other main character was Charlie Price (Petrus Kähkönen). I have seen him on Helsinki's Tanz der Vampire and Tampere's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and he acted the best in this show. He kind of over acted in Tanz and Hunchback, but I did not get the feeling in this. His Charlie was really likeable and interesting character. But I have to say Kähkönen's singing was not the best. He definitely sung better in Tanz der Vampire and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm not saying his singing was bad, but it was not pure at all times.
The costumes were just amazing. Tuomas Lampinen's costumes were rich, beautiful and colorful and they fit the characters. The more normal clothes of the factory workers and the more flashy clothes of the Angels were great. I especially loved the boots they created in the musical, and the red shoes were just great.
