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The Movie

This movie wasn’t really recommended to me – it was more like I was instructed to see it. You must see this movie. You will love this movie. Which shows that my sister knows me pretty well, because I did love it.

In Kinky Boots (2005), Charlie Price, played by Joel Edgerton, takes over the family shoe business after his father dies and discovers the business is failing. After a chance encounter with a drag queen named Lola, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie shifts the factory’s production from high-end men’s dress shoes to high-end shoes for men who like to wear women’s shoes.

It’s an absurd premise for a film. Except it really happened. In the early 90s, banker Steve Pateman took over the family shoe business, W.J. Brookes & Sons, which was unable to keep up with cheap overseas manufacturing and failing. Things turned around when the owner of a shop that catered to transgender men and drag queens approached him about making sexy shoes that could support a man’s weight.

This movie is hilarious, with great performances from Edgerton and especially Ejiofor. Unlike many drag queens (see The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar), Lola actually sings (Whatever Lola Wants, These Boots Were Made for Walking), and has the best lines:

“Burgundy. Please, God, tell me I have not inspired something burgundy. Red. Red. Red. Red, Charlie boy. Red! Is the color of sex! Burgundy is the color of hot water bottles! Red is the color of sex and fear and danger and signs that say, Do. Not. Enter. All my favorite things in life.”

After Charlie solves the engineering problem of making sexy heels that will support a man’s weight and comes to understand that red is sexy, burgundy is not, the business is saved.

The movie got mixed reviews. Those folks are wrong. It’s great.

The Musical

I’m not a big fan of musicals. (Bad gay!) I like Sondheim, and old stuff like West Side Story and South Pacific. I guess more precisely, I’m not a fan of big musicals, the kind with soaring high notes and no enunciation. I may be the only gay alive who didn’t like Wicked.

I expected Kinky Boots to be great.

As noted above, I loved the movie. I’m a big fan of both Harvey Fierstein (book) and Cyndi Lauper (score). The show had been nominated for 13 Tonys and won six, including Best Musical and Best Score (with Lauper being the first solo woman to win Best Score). And when I saw it, Charlie was played by Brendon Urie from Panic! At the Disco, who should absolutely do more theater.

I loved it. It’s just a really fun show to watch. It was completely engaging – you could tell everyone in the audience was enjoying themselves. The whole cast was terrific, especially J. Harrison Ghee as Lola.

There are rumored plans to make a film version of the musical. I look forward to seeing it.