Kinky Boots: stage vs screen

Kinky Boots began as a 2005 British film directed by Julian Jarrold, with Joel Edgerton as shoe factory heir Charlie Price and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the drag performer Lola. The Broadway musical opened in 2013 with songs by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein, and it won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Both save a struggling Northampton factory with boots, but they differ in many ways.

Stage

Broadway musical (2013)

Screen

Kinky Boots (2005), directed by Julian Jarrold

1. The film is a comedy, the stage show a full musical

In the film, Lola performs existing songs on stage, such as "Whatever Lola Wants," "I Want to Be Evil," and "In These Shoes?" The musical replaces them with an original score by Cyndi Lauper, including "Land of Lola," "Sex Is in the Heel," "Hold Me in Your Heart," and the finale "Raise You Up/Just Be." Lauper became the first woman to win the Tony for Best Original Score alone.

2. Two sons and their fathers

Harvey Fierstein described the stage show as the story of two young men from seemingly opposite worlds who each need to stand up to their fathers, a shift in focus from the film's story of saving a factory. On stage, Lola (born Simon) was trained as a boxer by a father who disowned him after he turned up at a match in drag. Charlie and Lola share "Not My Father's Son," and in Act Two Lola visits his dying father and finds closure.

3. Arm wrestling becomes a boxing match

In the film, Don (Nick Frost), one of the workers who resists Lola, comes around after Lola lets him win an arm-wrestling match, sparing him ridicule. The musical turns it into a boxing wager, with the song "In This Corner." Lola again lets Don win, then asks him to accept someone for who they are.

4. Nicola and the developer

In the film, Charlie's fiancee Nicola wants him to sell the factory building to a developer, and after a row that the staff overhear, she leaves him. Later he catches her with another man. On stage, Nicola is a status-conscious fiancee who arrives from London with her boss, Richard Bailey, who plans to turn the factory into condominiums, and she breaks up with Charlie in Act Two, fed up with his obsession.

5. Lauren gets her own songs

Lauren, the factory worker whose talk of an underserved niche market sparks the boot idea, ends up with Charlie in both versions. On stage, Annaleigh Ashford's Lauren gets the comic solo "The History of Wrong Guys" and a reprise in Act Two. Charlie promotes her, and the two share their first kiss in Milan during the celebration after the show.

6. The Milan finale

In both versions, Charlie has no models for the Milan show and walks the runway himself, and in the film he falls flat on his face. Lola and her drag friends then arrive to save the day. The musical closes with the whole company in "Raise You Up/Just Be." The film ends with Lola headlining her own show and singing in honor of the factory, with Charlie and Lauren now a couple.

7. Where each version was made

The film is a British production that filmed many scenes at a Tricker's shoe factory in Northampton. The Broadway musical is set in Northampton too, but was performed by American actors, which drew some criticism over accents. The West End production, with Matt Henry as Lola, won three Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical.

Kinky Boots movie vs musical: FAQs