WHAT do you do if you inherit a traditional shoe factory that is about to be swamped by cheap overseas imports. If your name is Clark, you convert the main factory site into a shopping village and introduce a smaller range of specialist shoes.

Kinky Boots, for all its flamboyant story and big scale musical numbers, is based on the true story of a traditional shoe factory battling to stay alive in the face of a changing market which they had failed to recognise. This serious theme, along with the more personal story of two men rejected by their fathers as being inadequate, and the violent prejudices against anyone wanting to live their lives outside the accepted norm, hardly seems to be a natural basis for a musical, but in the hands of author Harvey Fierstein and composer Cyndi Lauper, this adaptation of the 2005 film turns into a boisterous spectacular and noisy musical.

Sitting at her keyboard with her head nodding throughout like one of those irritating nodding toy animals, MD Sioned Evans makes sure that she and her five fellow musicians produce the sort of big sound that the score demands. And set and costumer designer Robert Jones, aided by Ben Cracknell’s flashy lighting, produces visual effects to match the musical input.

It’s all well and good to have that sort of backing if you have a big enough personality to take on the central role of drag artist Lola, who designs and wears the Kinky Boots that come to the factory’s rescue. Enter Strictly Come Dancing star Johannes Radebe, who lives up to the billing not only leading six ‘Angel’ drag queens and the whole company in one big boisterous number after another, but also proving to have vocal skills to match dancing prowess.

The personal relationships particularly Dan Partridge’s excellently studied and strongly sung portrait of troubled factory owner Charlie Price, and Lola, doesn’t quite match their vocal contributions, but more of the blame for that can be laid at the door of director Nikolai Foster, rather than the actors. He determinedly drives the production along at a furious pace, not until Act 2 allowing time for some more contemplative moments. But who is to say his judgement was wrong, with the audience roaring their approval at each spectacularly staged number.

One message that did come through loud and clear was the idea that the world would be a far better place if we learned to accept people as they are, rather than demanding they become what we think they ought to be.

Some nice characters emerged from the factory floor. Courtney Bowman’s ever-hopeful Lauren, the faithful George, Scott Paice as red-neck traditionalist Don, Joe Caffrey, and his keen follower Trish, Lucy Williamson, plus Charlie’s unforgiving and ambitious fiancée Nicola, Kara Lily Hayworth.

But they were always fighting a losing battle for the audiences attention and sympathy against the flamboyantly attired, big personality of Johannes Radebe, leading the company in those spectacularly staged numbers, that always drew the biggest response from the audience.

If you miss Kinky Boots at the Bristol Hippodrome, you can catch up with it at the Mayflower, Southampton between 27th and 31st May.

GRP