Kinky Boots At The Adelphi Theatre London Review - May 2018

Following on from yesterdays blog post all about our night in London, todays post is a review of the musical we went to see, Kinky Boots. We booked this a few months ago and the day seemed to take forever to arrive but now I'm so sad it's all over! Like with when we went to see Wicked, I wanted to do a full review of the show so I hope if any of you like seeing musicals like me, or are currently planning a trip to London, that this is helpful and gives you a little insight into the show.

After seeing Wicked for the first time at the end of 2016, I pretty much fell in love with musical theatre and I've lost count of the amount of musical soundtracks I've listened to since then. I knew when we were thinking of booking a trip to London that I wanted to see another show, as did George but we had no idea what. Since Wicked I'd been wanting to see another of the bigger shows like Les Miserables or The Phantom Of The Opera but the tickets are just too expensive and for some reason I was being drawn to lots of other shows, Kinky Boots being one of them. I watched the trailer and started listening to the soundtrack and it didn't take long for me to properly fall in love with it. I loved everything about it and from the reviews I'd read online it just seemed like such a fun, feel good show. Before I go any further, I'll leave a summary of the story below and the trailer, as they'll explain it better than I can!

'Since winning the 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, Kinky Boots is the winner of every major Best Musical award and is the hottest show in town! With songs by Grammy and Tony winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper, this fabulous musical celebration is about the friendships we discover, and the belief that you can change the world when you change your mind. Kinky Boots takes you from the factory floor to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price, played by David Hunter, is struggling to live up to his father's expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the shoe factory's future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, played by Simon-Anthony Rhoden, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos.'

We ended up getting tickets for £40 each which is so much more affordable than some of the other shows we had considered and they were really good seats too (Stalls, Row P, 13 and 14 if you wanted to know). We went almost 2 weeks ago now and from what I could see, most seats were taken up. We had the full cast on as far as I'm aware including David Hunter as Charlie, Simon-Anthony Rhoden as Lola and Verity Rushworth as Lauren. As soon as the show started, I loved it. Hearing the songs live after listening to the soundtrack for so long was just amazing and all of the cast were brilliant. In fact the people playing 'Lolas Angels' were outstanding and totally deserved the reaction they got each time. The three main actors had such good chemistry on stage and clearly all get along, it just worked and together the whole ensemble were fab. It was a show full of energy and constantly buzzing, it never stopped. Going back to the music, when Simon first came on stage as Lola, the whole audience loved it and that just added to the atmosphere. There were cheers at several points and this continued through lots of other songs because they were all just brilliant. Simon has an incredible voice, it completely filled the theatre in the bigger songs like Land of Lola but then he brought so much emotion to the slower songs like Not My Fathers Son and Hold Me In Your Heart. Both Simon and David when they sang Not My Fathers Son made me cry, it really got to me but that shows just how good the story is and how good they are at playing those characters, I felt such a range of emotions during the whole show! One minute I was wiping tears away, the next I was laughing and couldn't stop smiling.

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Verity Rushworth who I remember so well from her time as Donna in Emmerdale was hilarious as Lauren, I'm so sad she's leaving along with David soon as she's just fab in the role. I also remember seeing David in the ITV show Superstar ages ago so I was really excited to see him, and all I'd seen online about his Charlie Price was positive, now I totally see why. He is just great as Charlie and I wish I'd had the chance to see him again in it before he leaves. The final song of Raise You Up/Just Be with the whole cast was amazing, the whole audience loved it and it was just the best ending to the show. I felt so happy and like so many other people have said, it's just such a feel good show and you can't help but leave smiling! I remember thinking at the end that I just didn't want it to stop and once we had left I was already thinking about booking to go back. A new cast are starting next week but Simon-Anthony Rhoden is staying on as Lola so if you get chance to see him in the show, do it! He is brilliant and just makes the whole thing, I'm already desperate to be there for his last show whenever that might be as I think it will be really special.

I just loved the show and couldn't recommend it enough. I'm sure I've not made much sense with my review but without giving the whole thing away it's hard to explain, I just really wanted to say how much I enjoyed it and why I really think it's worth seeing. It has such a great story with an important message behind yet it's full of fun and sass and it has an outstanding soundtrack to go with it. As much as I loved Wicked and though they're very different shows, I think I preferred Kinky Boots, it really is so underrated and worth seeing. Tickets are really reasonably priced and they're currently booking up until January 2019 so if you're off to London any time soon or are hoping to see a show, definitely try and book!

Have you ever seen Kinky Boots before?

Yesterdays Post - 1 Night In London - Seeing A Show, Covent Garden & All The Food!

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