Kinky Boots at a glance

Show
Kinky Boots
Venue
London Coliseum, West End
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest station
Leicester Square (2 min walk); Charing Cross (5 min)
Genre
Musical (pop / Broadway)
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 20 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
8+ (under 5s not permitted; under-16s must be seated with an adult)
Dates
17 March – 11 July 2026 (17-week limited season)
Price range
From £19.50 (typically £19.50–£163.50)
Music & lyrics
Cyndi Lauper
Book
Harvey Fierstein
Based on
The 2005 Miramax film by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth (inspired by a true story)
Director
Nikolai Foster (Artistic Director, Curve Leicester)

Expert Review: Kinky Boots at the London Coliseum

4.2
★★★★☆

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 11 May 2026.

The Verdict

Kinky Boots has been back in the West End for less than two months and the audience verdict is already clear: this is one of the most reliably feel-good nights out in London right now. Cyndi Lauper's score, twelve years on from its Broadway debut, has aged into one of those musical-theatre canons people leave the theatre humming. "Raise You Up / Just Be" remains one of the great final numbers of the past two decades, and the London Coliseum's vast stage gives it room to land at full volume.

Nikolai Foster's new production — built up from a successful UK and Ireland tour that began at Curve Leicester in early 2025 — has the polish of a company that's now done this material hundreds of times. Johannes Radebe brings Strictly Come Dancing's wattage and considerable physical charm to Lola; his dance numbers are unsurprisingly the strongest moments of the night. Matt Cardle delivers Charlie's score reliably, though some critics have flagged that his acting strains more than his singing. The supporting company is strong throughout — Courtney Bowman's Lauren stops the show with "History of Wrong Guys," Scott Paige is a delight as factory foreman George.

The honest caveat: the book has aged. Harvey Fierstein's 2012 script handles its homophobic-confrontation scene less gracefully than it once did, and a couple of jokes around drag-queen identity versus trans identity register differently in 2026 than they did at the original West End opening in 2015. None of this stops the show from working — it remains, fundamentally, a musical about acceptance and chosen family that earns its emotional payoff — but the production has more honest distance from its own material than it once did. Worth a visit for the score alone, and a particularly strong choice if you've never seen it.

What Makes It Special

  • Cyndi Lauper's score. Lauper became the first solo woman to win the Tony for Best Original Score (2013) and added the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album the following year. Twelve years on, the score sits comfortably alongside Hairspray and The Book of Mormon as one of the great 21st-century musical comedy soundtracks.
  • Johannes Radebe as Lola. Radebe — a fan favourite on Strictly Come Dancing since 2019, finalist with John Whaite in 2021, fourth with Annabel Croft in 2023 — made his musical theatre debut as Lola on the 2025 UK tour and has transferred with the production to London. The Coliseum is his West End debut.
  • Six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The original 2013 Broadway production won six Tonys and ran until 2019. Olivier Award-winning original London production opened at the Adelphi Theatre in 2015 with Killian Donnelly and Matt Henry, ran until January 2019.
  • Nikolai Foster's direction. Foster, Artistic Director of Curve Leicester, is one of British musical theatre's most reliable hands — his credits include Grease, The Wizard of Oz, A Chorus Line, and An Officer and a Gentleman. Robert Jones's factory-floor set fills the Coliseum's enormous stage, with Leah Hill's choreography and the iconic Lola's Angels backing ensemble.
  • The Coliseum scale. At 2,359 seats the London Coliseum is the West End's largest theatre. The big musical numbers — particularly the boot-stomping Milan fashion show finale — are at their most spectacular at this scale, with sparkles, lights, and a full company strutting in red knee-highs.
  • Tosh Wanogho-Maud as Alternate Lola. Wanogho-Maud (Titanique, Bridgerton) plays Lola on Mondays from 6 April — a chance to see two very different takes on the role within a single production.

You'll love Kinky Boots if you...

  • Want a big, joyful, feel-good musical with anthem after anthem
  • Are a Johannes Radebe / Strictly fan and want to see him in his West End debut
  • Love Cyndi Lauper or were a fan of the 2005 British film
  • Enjoyed shows like Hairspray, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, or Priscilla Queen of the Desert
  • Want a celebratory, inclusive night out with a great finale

It might not be for you if you...

  • Prefer through-composed sung-through musicals like Les Mis or Phantom
  • Find dated handling of LGBTQ+ themes uncomfortable — there are moments here that creak
  • Are looking for something subtle or character-driven — this is high-energy throughout
  • Are bringing under-5s — they're not permitted in the auditorium
  • Want lyric-led storytelling — the dance and ensemble numbers are the strength here

Best for

  • Strictly fans
  • Musical theatre lovers
  • Cyndi Lauper fans
  • Group nights out
  • Pride season
  • Older children (8+)

Not the strongest fit for very young children, audiences seeking subtle drama, or anyone particularly sensitive to dated representation of LGBTQ+ themes.

Critical Reception

Press night was 25 March 2026. The London critical reception has been broadly positive — most critics praised Johannes Radebe's stage presence, Cyndi Lauper's score, and the show's celebratory energy, with some reservations about Matt Cardle's acting and the dated handling of certain themes. Verified ratings and notable quotes from the major UK publications:

  • The Stage ★★★★ ("a glorious revival of a modern Broadway classic")
  • Evening Standard — strong positive ("a fierce and fabulous performance" from Radebe)
  • The Times — positive ("avoids overplaying the uplift")
  • The Sun — positive ("fun, feel-good and unforgettable")
  • Daily Star — positive ("sparkly, joyful and life-affirming")
  • The Scotsman — positive (praising Cardle's "immaculate vocals")
  • WhatsOnStage — broadly positive with some reservations

Source: published reviews of the West End production at the London Coliseum, March–April 2026.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in Kinky Boots?

Two stories run in parallel, one northern English and one drag-circuit cabaret, and the musical's whole project is to bring them together.

Charlie's inheritance

Charlie Price has spent his life trying to escape the family business: Price & Son, a Northampton shoe factory that has been making the same brogues for four generations. When his father dies unexpectedly, Charlie returns home to find the factory broke, his father's workforce facing redundancy, and a fiancée (Nicola) who wants him to sell up and move to London. Charlie has no shoemaking instincts and no plan; the factory is days away from closing.

An accidental meeting

On a chance visit to London, Charlie steps in to defend a glamorous figure being harassed in an alley: this turns out to be Lola, the lead drag performer at a Soho cabaret. The boots Lola wears for her act — sturdy enough to hold a man's weight, glamorous enough for stage — turn out to be perpetually breaking, since they're made on women's lasts. Charlie has a factory in Northampton. Lola has a market. The factory pivots.

The factory floor

The story's emotional core lives in the factory, where Lola and Charlie's plan meets old-school workers who don't know what to make of a six-foot drag queen designing thigh-high red boots on their workbenches. Don, the alpha factory floor leader, is hostile; Lauren, a young factory worker, is more interested in Charlie than Charlie has noticed; the rest of the workforce gradually comes around. The first act ends with the factory's new product being committed to the Milan fashion show — Charlie's last chance to save the business.

The Act II crisis

It nearly falls apart. Charlie, under pressure and afraid of failure, lashes out at Lola in one of the show's most painful scenes — a homophobic outburst that Lola refuses to forgive easily. Lola's own story emerges in "Not My Father's Son," one of the score's most moving numbers, in which Lola (as Simon) talks about growing up with a boxer father who couldn't accept his son. Charlie and Lola have to find their way back to each other before the Milan show. They do.

The Milan fashion show

The finale is one of the great pieces of pure musical-theatre joy: the boots are unveiled, the factory workforce is on stage in full drag, and "Raise You Up / Just Be" — Lauper's anthemic closer — sends the audience out into the street still humming. It's the kind of ending you forgive almost any production sins to get to.

What the show is really about

Underneath the pop-anthem surface, Kinky Boots is a musical about chosen family, about the gap between the people who raised you and the person you actually are, and about how unlikely partnerships can save both of you. The Harvey Fierstein book — at its best — is direct, warm, and unsentimental about these themes. At its worst (and it does have a worst), it falls back on jokes that haven't aged as well as the score has. The production knows this, and largely plays through it.