Worthing Musical Theatre Company brings Kinky Boots The Musical to the stage - video Dailymotion

SussexWorld

Worthing Musical Theatre Company is hoping to continue a fabulous run of post-Covid successes with their latest show Kinky Boots The Musical at Worthing’s Pavilion Theatre from September 19-21.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, lovely to

00:06speak again to Tim Kimber, Chairman of Worthing Musical Theatre Company. Now you've had a

00:11fabulous run of shows since the pandemic, done really well, critical box office success

00:16and you were hoping for more of the same with Kinky Boots, which is at the Worthing Pavilion

00:20in September. So forgive me, it's not a musical I know, but you are clearly very excited about

00:26producing it. Why is it a good one to do now, do you think?

00:31It's a great time to be doing it, it's very personal for the times we live in. The story

00:35is essentially the triumph of love, unity and togetherness and diversity over bigotry

00:43and hate. And that's going to strike a chord with so many people.

00:49And you couldn't have known that when you decided to do this show, could you?

00:53Probably not, no, because as I'm sure you know, we book our shows often more than a

00:59year in advance, but here we are in the current political climate and it's completely appropriate.

01:09Absolutely. And part of the surprise of the show is that, well, it's set in a shoe factory

01:14in Northampton, which doesn't sound the most likely start for a big successful musical,

01:18does it?

01:19No, it doesn't. It's quite extraordinary, isn't it, that some Americans decided to write

01:25a musical about a shoe factory in Northampton and the musical won six Tony Awards on Broadway,

01:33including Best Musical. Just amazing. And yeah, the shoe factory is the setting, but

01:42I guess it's the theme and it's the story and the story of the main protagonist in the

01:49show. And we see them as both young boys and older men, as the older men. One is the owning

01:58and running the shoe factory and the other is a drag queen. And that's where the story

02:08of diversity and so on comes in. And it's Lola, the drag queen, who saves the day. And

02:14the factory, which is facing closure, is more or less hauled out of the coals by Lola's

02:19big plan.

02:20That sounds great. And you're hoping for decent, obviously, you're hoping for decent tickets

02:24sales. And this, as I say, is on the back of a run of really successful shows. Does

02:29it surprise you that the company has done so well post-Covid? Because it was such a

02:33tough time and some companies have struggled to come back, but your company clearly hasn't,

02:38has it? You've done well.

02:40We have done well. Certainly, we were nervous in 2022 when we did our first post-Covid show,

02:47My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady, a classic musical, but some people might have thought it was

02:53old fashioned, but we sold large numbers of tickets, great critical success, moved on.

03:00And we do a wide variety of shows, so we cater for all tastes. We went on to do Our House,

03:06a Madness musical. We've won a Noda Award for that, a regional Noda Award. We did School

03:14of Rock last year, to huge sell-out audiences to every performance. Kips earlier this year

03:22and now Kinky Boots. Ticket sales are going really well and tickets are still available,

03:29but I certainly recommend getting on and booking them soon. We're on at about six weeks' time,

03:34so yeah, don't be disappointed.

03:37Well, I hope it goes well. As always, Tim, lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

03:42Likewise, Phil. Thanks very much indeed.

Worthing Musical Theatre Company brings Kinky Boots The Musical to the stage

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