STEPPING OUT IN KINKY BOOTS
A new musical sees an explosion of powerful statements and sparkling heels and boots, writes
Night in and night out, 100 pairs of heels will strut, sashay, jump and spin across the stage as part of Kinky Boots, the global musical production touring Wellington and Auckland.
It is the heel and sole that bridges drag queens to the same ground that everyone else walks.
The tale was inspired by a true story of Charlie Price, who inherited a shoe factory from his father, and his unlikely friendship with drag queen Lola to produce a line of ‘‘kinky boots’’ to save the business.
Based on the 2005 film, the musical adaptation features music and lyrics by 1980s pop icon Cyndi Lauper.
And just as the art of drag can be a special and creative expression of queer identity, so too can the choice of shoes that queens wear – whether it be towering platforms or thigh-high boots.
Local queen Anita Wigl’it, also known as Nick Kennedy-Hall, is the owner and resident queen of Auckland’s Caluzzi Cabaret on Karangahape Rd. As someone who has been involved in the drag scene for 15 years, KennedyHall knows what he wants in a drag shoe.
Now that he’s in his 30s, his ideal heel is a little bit lower than the 22cm-high stilettos he started with. Now, spending about 20 hours a week in heels, he typically wears 71⁄2cm with a platform.
His favourite pair is his ‘‘Cinderella crystal slippers’’, $50 standard silver heels from AliExpress, which he bedazzled with $500 worth of Swarovski rhinestones.
‘‘Men’s shoes are often built very sturdy, very comfortable . . . whereas women’s shoes come in many more varieties, and they can be so beautiful and delicate,’’ Kennedy-Hall said.
‘‘Women’s shoes, in my opinion, are designed to be looked at, rather than to be worn.’’
Despite that, Kennedy-Hall, who has starred in television shows including RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, House Of Drag and Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs The World, knows when it is time to put up with some discomfort for the sake of fashion.
‘‘The first pair that I ever bought for myself was a nineinch heel. At the ball of the foot was a little trapdoor, and you could fill the front part with goldfish, or water, or feathers.’’
A pair of Kennedy-Hall’s shoes would usually last six months. ‘‘I basically buy two pairs of three-inch clear plastic heels a year and I will wear them until they die and disintegrate.’’
With all the action that his shoes are put through, they require regular maintenance.
‘‘The most common one is getting the bottom of the heel replaced, because that always wears down.
‘‘The shoe cobbler becomes your best friend,’’ he says.
Jeremy Hinman and Olly Humphries play Angels, a posse of drag queens, in the New Zealand season of Kinky Boots. Outside of the show, they have worked in musical theatre and are part of the drag trio,
Les Femmes.
‘‘For us to get into drag was an opportunity to combine very heightened queer expression with musical theatre training, and then also getting that intimate audience reaction that we don’t always get in large-scale musicals,’’ Hinman said.
‘‘It’s a big wide world out there for shoes.’’
He said that finding the right shoe can be a ‘‘hot mess’’, explaining that most of the time, you can’t just try on shoes for drag in a shop.
‘‘You have to order online [often from overseas], and then you don’t know if they’re going to be suitable for what you need until they get here.’’
Humphries looks for a balance between aesthetics and stability in a drag shoe. He said they need to make you feel ‘‘incredible’’, ‘‘hot’’ and ‘‘gorgeous’’, which can be about the material, colours and height.
‘‘We have men-sized feet, so often if you’re going for something a little bit shorter it makes your foot look really long,’’ said Hinman. ‘‘A 4-6inch heel is where you get a nice shape with the arch.
‘‘A little platform under the ball of your foot goes a mile in making it feel more comfortable because you can get that height without having such a steep incline in your arch.’’
Ultimately, Humphries said he needs, ‘‘a good quality shoe with a good sole and something that’s going to last and feel comfortable enough to throw our bodies around the stage [in].’’
For the New Zealand production of Kinky Boots, cast members were each offered a couple of options to try before they decided on their pair of ‘‘kinky boots’’ for the finale. These were ordered well in advance, before Christmas last year.
They also had a rehearsal pair that could ‘‘really trash’’. Hinman said on some days, the cast will be rehearsing for over six hours. Only a week before the public shows did they move into the performance heels.
‘‘We each have five pairs that we’ve had to break in but that means [by now], they’re really comfy, and we won’t be struggling with blisters or anything like that,’’ Hinman said.
‘‘Heading into the show, we knew how much we were going to be in heels and how demanding the requirements of the show were going to be on our feet, so we did a lot of strengthening at the gym before we even started,’’ Humphries said.
‘‘Making sure we warm up properly before we get into the heels is huge,’’ he said.
‘‘Then by the time you get out of the shoes, things like rolling out your feet on a spiky ball can be a really good way of relaxing those muscles and doing some calf stretches.’’
Humphries is most excited to wear a sparkly, silver pair of tassel cowgirl heels in the show.
‘‘Luckily, I don’t have to dance in that number a lot, I just kind of strut back and forth, because they’re not very dance-appropriate shoes.’’
Hinman, whose new favourite are a pair of thigh-high purple platforms in the finale, says, ‘‘there’s a lot of really positive messaging and powerful statements made amongst all the glitter and very high heels’’.
Humphries added that the show is a fantastic way in to understand queer culture in a fun and vibrant way. ‘‘I think this show is what New Zealand and the world needs right now.’’
Kinky Boots is on at Auckland Civic Theatre until June 17, and at Wellington’s St James Theatre from June 28 to July 15.