Review by Doug Iden
Kinky Boots currently stomps on the Carnegie Theater stage. (How many musicals can you name whose star is a shoe?–And a really big shoe.) RUN don’t walk to get your tickets.
The Story and Players
Based initially on a BBC documentary which was remade as a movie, Kinky Boots tells the (mostly) true story about a fourth-generation shoe manufacturing company in England which is gradually going bankrupt trying to sell expensive, out-of-fashion shoes to an increasingly uninterested public.
In the opening number, “Price and Son Theme/The Most Beautiful Thing”, we are introduced to the main characters including scion Mr. Price (Dylan Van Camp), a young son Charlie (Tomi Newman), a young Simon/Lola (Montez O. Jenkins Copeland) and various factory workers. As the song progresses, Charlie is now a young man and his father tries to persuade him to continue in the family business. But Charlie has another vision and plans to move to London with his fiancée Nicola (Sujaya Sunkara) for a real estate career.
Shortly thereafter, Charlie learns of his father’s death and wants to continue the business but not run it himself. He then discovers the shaky financial condition of the company. Back in London, Charlie happens upon a mugging of a woman and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up in a nightclub and discovers that the “woman” he tried to save is actually Lola the drag queen who, along with her Angels (Kyle Angel (no kidding), Anthony Contreras, Anderson Rothwell and Zach Van Camp) is performing the raucous song “The Land of Lola”.
Necessity Leads to Invention
Despite the apparent differences between them, Charlie and Lola become friends and, eventually, business partners. Charlie notices that the boots Lola is wearing are very uncomfortable for a man and, along with factory worker Lauren (Monique Churchill), they concoct a scheme and a design to manufacture fancy boots for men to help save the company.
The initial boot design by Charlie is dismissed by Lola who states that the “Sex is in the Heel” followed by a production number including the Angels and the factory workers. Lauren discovers that she is falling for Charlie and laments “The History of Wrong Guys” which is a highlight of the show. Still trying to sort out their relationship, Lola and Charlie commiserate with the song “I’m Not My Father’s Son” during which we discover that each character has “daddy issues” because their respective fathers do not accept them. They also start to realize that they are not as different as they thought. Act One ends with the celebratory number “Everybody Say Yeah” with the production of the first “kinky boot”.
Themes
The show has a lot of heart and soul, mixing big club songs with more traditional Broadway melodies. Kinky Boots won 6 Tony Awards including best musical and best score by Cyndi Lauper. The book is written by Harvey Fierstein with themes including tolerance and acceptance, relationships between fathers and sons and the role of masculinity. The question of “what is a man” is presented in the song “In this Corner” when antagonistic factory worker Don (Jathan “JB” Briscoe) challenges Lola to a boxing match, unaware that Lola (at his father’s insistence) has boxing experience.
The entire cast is excellent but Copeland (as Lola/Simon) steals virtually every scene with a bombastic, over-the-top acting style to belting songs to the poignant rendition of “Hold Me in Your Heart.”
The Production Team
Director Lindsey Augusta Mercer has put together a wonder cast and production team to make this Kinky Boots a highly professional experience. It is theatrically extraordinary with story and song augmented by the technical elements of lighting, set design and costuming.
Since five of the major characters are men playing drag queens, the costuming, wigs and make-up almost become characters themselves thanks to Erin Donnelly (Costumes) and Kayne O’Brien (Kora Sline) for the Wigs and Makeup. Lola seems to wear a different outfit with each appearance including gowns and assorted outlandish clothes. The Angels are constantly “wigging out”.
Alaina Pizzoferrato’s lighting design is a major feat, with a combination of traditional flood lights and a series of electrical prop boxes which are moved continuously throughout the show. Lighting, in different colors, emanates from the perimeter of the boxes and, occasionally, from flood lights outside the boxes. The lighting creates unusual moods and perspectives throughout. A good example is the “Sex is in the Heel” number when the stage is drenched in red coming from the floodlights and the boxes simultaneously.
The singing is strong and heartfelt with many of the performers either current of recent graduates of various musical theater programs. The dancing, by Julia Schick, is more movement than traditional tap or ballet and is more reminiscent of club or MTV choreography. The dancers are all instep.
Bottom Line
You’ll get a kick out of this show. The sold-out theater crowd really got into it. During the final production number (“Raise You Up/Just Be”), the cast took its bows and, during the encore, was greeted by a standing, clapping crowd.
RUN to Get Your Tickets to “Kinky Boots”
So, strap on your high heels and boot away your blues while running to The Carnegie’s production of Kinky Boots running through August 19. Their next show is the one-woman Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill celebrating Billy Holliday running from July 15-August 20.
