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Like a supporting cast of Santa's busy elves, Kinky Boots includes a shoe-factory full of colorfully quaint, diamond-in-the-rough characters. Their presence harkens back to other British comedic and musical films like Calendar Girls and The Full Monty. In this popular film genre, quirky but lovable working class characters find themselves in unfamiliar situations that require them to do something outrageous.

The lovably gritty, salt-of-the-earth working class employees of Kinky Boots' shoe factory actually form the backbone of the film's story. Can they make the switch from their longtime jobs of making traditional, well-made men's footwear to “kinky boots” for the strange new target market of drag queens? Additionally, will they be able to accept drag queen Lola as the factory's new footwear designer and new co-worker?

Featured standouts in the background cast are Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) as Don, a lummox factory worker who at first dislikes Lola. Also of note is Sara-Jane Potts as Lauren, the spirited, good-hearted factory worker who helps Charlie learn to both believe in himself and become more accepting of things he can't understand. Things like Lola.

Footwear in this film becomes a visual motif for the interplay between social classes, sexes, and sexual orientations. Many scenes, songs, and characters begin with a shot of their walking feet, revealing their footwear. (As the old shoemaker adage goes,“ the first thing one notices about a person is their shoes”).

In its glitzy, light-hearted way, Kinky Boots draws on all manner of (especially feminine) footwear-themed lore. Gay audiences will conjure up light-hearted, fairy-tale nods to and traces of Cinderella's glass slippers, Grimm's The Red Shoes, Dorothy's ruby slippers, as well as certain childhood memories of dressing up in mommy's shoes (This reviewer did!)

Additionally, the film's (mostly retro disco) soundtrack contains at least several footgear related songs, including – you guessed it – a dance-y pumpin' cover of “These Boots are Made for Walkin'”. Additionally there are vintage versions of classics like “In These Shoes” and “The Red Shoes”.

Speaking of the soundtrack, the very talented Chiwetel actually sings a lot of his character Lola's own songs in the film. He is possessed of a finely tuned, clear, clarion baritone, and delivers lyrics with a unique sense of intelligence and crisp diction. He sounds equally at home in pop as he does in jazz. His rendition of “Whatever Lola Wants” is a standout.

Kinky Boots marches itself towards a nail-biting, high stakes Milan fashion show finale. The glittering, pull-out-all-the-stops runway musical montage climax is so “ready-for-musical theater”, I'll bet my Steve Madden's the producers are in planning for the films onstage Broadway versions right now.

In fact, everything about this film screams out “Broadway musical!” It already has a larger than life, singing grand dame star diva; a standard hetero young lovers romance sub-plot; and a complete musical score full of show-stopping famous songs. It's got two big and beautifully contrasting stage-ready background settings and choruses – one of flashy drag queens in a big city nightclub and one of oddball workers in a big old shoe factory. And what could be more dance-friendly than a story centered around shoes?

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