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.
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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.