Kinky Boots The Musical In Concert – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Cerdic Neal in Kinky Boots the Musical in Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Picture: Mark Senior

Kinky Boots The Musical In Concert continues at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London until 9 August 2022.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The London Musical Theatre Orchestra is back at Drury Lane this week for a two-nights-only bash at Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s Kinky Boots. And with the ceiling-lifting cheers from their semi-staged production of Chess last week still echoing around the fly tower, Freddie Tapner and his forces once again has the rafters rattling with another sensational concert performance.

Compared with LMTO’s Chess, this was bound to be a more modest affair – ‘remember, it’s a concert performance’, intoned the rather nervous-sounding PR contact as she handed over my ticket, somewhat apologetically. But stripped of the gantries and video screens, the chairs-only Drury Lane stage offers a simple space in which to tell the story of Northampton’s Price & Son shoe company. And why this concert staging does nothing to detract from the storytelling is because of the light touch from director Omar F Okai – on saying that, more of a steel fist in a crushed-velvet glove, I suspect – and its rather wonderful cast.

As Charlie, Joel Harper-Jackson was a late replacement for Matt ‘Busted’ Willis. He returns to the lead role he’d taken around the country in the original UK touring production of Kinky Boots which he slips back into comfortably, like a well-fitted leather brogue.

This star-in-the-making has had something of a stratospheric rise of late and justifiably so. Almost literally shoved to fame as the last-minute replacement for Taron Egerton in Cock earlier this year at the Ambassadors, Harper-Jackson proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that he is West End leading man material by tackling the role of the American in LMTO’s Chess with such confidence and assuredness. He has a unique stage presence – lithe and yet angular – and a characterful voice that he can send skywards without seemingly any effort. Someone give this man a show of his own – you won’t regret it.

And then – even more sensationally – there’s Cedric Neal. Wow! What a performance he gives as Lola! If Harper-Jackson raises the roof then Neal blows it clean off – I’m sure I saw the splintered shards tumbling through the streets of Aldwych on my way home. This is surely the role he was born to play, stopping the show as he did for a good few minutes of standing ovations after his ‘Hold Me in Your Heart’. There was a lot of love in the room for Neal, and rightly so… his contribution is especially impressive given that he’s currently knocking it out of the park each night as Goldie Wilson in Back to the Future.

The other headliner is the vivacious Courtney Bowman, who in my opinion can do no wrong. The Six and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie alum – and most recently star of Legally Blonde at Regent’s Park – steals every scene she is in, and she is clearly loving every moment sharing the stage with her co-stars. Not only is she a sensational singer, she’s able to send us into fits of laughter with a simple roll of the eyes or purse of the lips – she clearly has a special talent for comedy.

As we’ve become accustomed to with LMTO gigs, the supporting cast is top notch too, with a particularly impressive performance of ‘In This Corner’ by Ashley Samuels (Referee Angel). He is joined in his heavenly choir of fan-snapping, finger-waving ‘Angels’ by Jordan Bennett, Eli Caldwell, Ross Carpenter, Finton Flynn and Jayred Lempriere.

As Price & Son employees, we had Ahmed Hamad (Harry), Sean Needham (Don), Daisy Wood-Davis (Nicola), Duane Gooden (George), Graham Bickley (Mr Price), Hannah Lowther (Gemma), Kayleigh McKnight (Trish), Madison Swan (Marge) and Nikki Bentley (Pat). Beefing out the ensemble is the London Musical Theatre Chorus.

As with Chess last week, the sound team – headed up by Tom Marshall – ensures that every word can be heard. And it all looked very pretty thanks to Ben Cracknell’s lighting design (with only a couple of momentary lapses in spotlighting, which isn’t bad at all given the two day run).

While I’m not a devotee of the show – I’d only seen it once before – I really enjoyed this exuberant outing. There’s nothing I can say I don’t like about Lauper’s music and lyrics, and the same goes for Fierstein’s book (well, other than the repeated use of ‘London Town’ – does anyone actually call it this?).

It really has a good heart, and is filled with important messages about identity and acceptance and tolerance – goodness knows we could do with more of this all round. With Okai’s unfussy staging, it has an almost intimate feel, and I usually always prefer this over the alternative.

Is Kinky Boots the best use of the London Musical Theatre Orchestra forces? Perhaps not, or at least not in the same way that their previous show Chess was, with its ambitious scoring, or Camelot, say, in all its orchestral exuberance. But it still sounds fantastic, as anything will, I’m sure, under the baton of the ever-reliable Tapner.

Up next for LMTO is a new work – the gunpowder-plot lockdown hit Treason, with a cast that includes Carrie Hope Fletcher, Bradley Jaden and Neal once again. I’m sure that’ll be a blast too – indeed, the way this LMTO summer season is going, they’ll be blowing the walls down next…

Craig Glenday