At what point is a production finished? Is it when you sell out a UK and European tour? Or perhaps after winning Olivier, Tony and Grammy awards? Kinky Boots has achieved all that, but its director, Nikolai Foster, wants more. The acclaimed show is rebooted at the London Coliseum, and – so the marketing goes – bolder and brighter.
The story centres on Charlie Price, played by the 2010 X Factor winner Matt Cardle, who is torn between his father’s failing shoe factory in Northampton and a life he is trying to establish with his fiancée in London. While in the capital, Charlie crosses paths with an impossibly glamorous drag queen, Lola, perfectly embodied by Johannes Radebe of Strictly Come Dancing. In this tale of prejudice, acceptance and collaboration, the two begin working togetherto save Charlie’s father’s company.
Clad head to toe in fire-truck-red sequins, frills and satins, Radebe’s Lola outshines the other actors on stage. Her musical sequences are larger than life and will make you consider signing up to a burlesque class (conveniently, there is a studio ten minutes from the theatre). The atmosphere visibly shifts around Lola and the neon lights seem to brighten as Radebe chassés on to the stage against a factory-turned-pop-concert backdrop with a hydraulic stage and a light-up red boot.
Lola’s wattage, however, renders other characters bland by comparison. Cardle’s vocals are immaculate, but he’s difficult to connect with. Others blend into the background, becoming part of the factory’s furniture rather than adding texture to the storyline – though, dues must be given to George (Scott Page) and Lauren (Courtney Bowman), who inject humour through their commedia dell’arte-esque sequences.
The new production of Kinky Boots might be bolder and more blinding – at times literally – but does it need to be? Radebe, with his infectious energy, proves that the show’s boldness comes from the cast rather than the bright lights of the staging or the extravagant costumes of the drag queens.
[Further reading: John Proctor is the Villain is a thrilling teenage-girl take on The Crucible]
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This article appears in the 08 Apr 2026 issue of the New Statesman, The Fall
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