StageSceneLA

KINKY BOOTS

The 2013 Tony–winning Best Musical Kinky Boots is back in town at Orange County’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts, crowd-pleasing, transformative, and packing enough emotional punch to bring even the hardest-hearted theatergoer to tears and cheers.

Like the 2005 British movie on which it is based, Kinky Boots The Musical is the true-story-inspired tale of a couldn’t-be-odder couple of 20something English lads—straight-laced Charlie (Lance Bordelon), owner of a floundering Northhampton shoe factory he has just inherited from his recently deceased father, and flamboyant drag queen Lola né Simon (Jos N. Banks), whose need for a stiletto heel strong enough to support a fully-grown man-in-sequins provides Charlie with an idea that might just give the family business new life.

Also along for the ride are factory workers Lauren (Sydney Patrick), who’s got an eye for her new boss; Don (Adam Du Plessis), who’s got a homophobic dislike for Lola; and George (John Anker Bow), who’s been Charlie’s father’s right-hand-man for years.

Most eye-catching of all are Lola’s “Angels,” a sextet of the curviest, leggiest men-in-drag to light up a Broadway stage since La Cage Aux Folles’s Les Cagelles debuted exactly three decades before.

Proving that coming-of-age stories can extend well into a character’s twenties, Kinky Boots follows its mismatched heroes on their parallel paths to true adulthood, demonstrating along that way that you don’t have to be manly to be a man, you simply need to learn to respect yourself and accept others for who they are, something more easily imagined than done.

Book writer Harvey Fierstein (Tony-nominated for Kinky Boots) knows a thing or two about drag, as his Tony-winning script for Torch Song Trilogy and his Tony-winning book for La Cage Aux Folles made abundantly clear, and his latest hero(ine)-in-spangles joins Torch Song’s Arnold and La Cage’s Albin in three-dimensional, six-inch-stilettoed fabulousness.

Kinky Boot’s dozen or so instantly infectious song are the Tony-winning creations of legendary pop star Cyndi Lauper, and if “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” made Cyndi a star and “True Colors” showed her versatility and depth, Kinky’s “Sex Is In The Heel” made its own history by becoming the first Broadway song to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard club charts in twenty-five years.

Jerry Mitchell does double duty as Kinky Boots’ Tony-nominated director and its Tony-winning choreographer, with associate director D.B. Bonds eliciting richly-layered, deeply human performances from its national-touring cast and associate choreographer Rusty Mowery ensuring dazzling dance fireworks throughout.

Bloke-next-door perfection as Charlie, Bordelon not only sings with Broadway-caliber pipes (his “Soul Of A Man” is a particular stunner), he has us rooting for our young hero even when his innate goodness temporarily falters.

Sharing star billing, Banks proves the very definition of fabulous as Lola, fierce, defiant, wounded but resilient, and brings down the house like nobody’s business with “Land of Lola,” “Not My Father’s Son” (duetted with Bordelon) and “Hold Me In Your Heart.”

Patrick’s feisty, ball-of-fire Lauren belts high notes to the rafters, Du Plessis’s big burly Don proves that even the narrowest mind can widen, Bow delights as the punctilious, still-waters-run deep George, big-voiced Haley Lampart pouts and gripes with the best of them as Charlie’s London-obsessed fiancée Nicola, and glamour gals Brandon Alberto, swing Daniel Joseph Baker, Eric Stanton Betts, Derek Brazeau, Tony Tillman, and Ernest Terrell Williams are not only leggy, luscious, high-kicking dance whizzes, they do it in 4-inch stiletto heels.

Ensemble members Monica Ban (Trish), Natalie Braha (Milan Stage Manager), Jeffrey B. Duncan (Mr. Price), Andrew Hendrick, Bethany Xan Jeffery (Pat), Lindsay Joan, Ethan Kirschbaum (Harry), Andrew Malone (Simon Sr.), Madison Pugh, Jace Reinhard (Richard Bailey), Eric Shonk complete the cast with versatility, virtuosity, and pizzazz. (The cameo roles of Young Charlie and Young Lola have been cut from this non-Equity tour.)

Gregg Barnes’ sparkly, spangly, Tony-nominated costumes feature the most to-die-for boots you have ever seen in your life, David Rockwell’s Tony-nominated scenic design goes from splendid to spectacular, Kenneth Posner’s Tony-nominated lighting design is a winner as well, John Shiver’s Tony-winning sound design is crystal-clear, and Josh Marquette’s hair and Brian Strumwasser’s makeup designs are as glitzy and glittery as they get.

Music director Kevin Casey conducts and plays keyboards in Kinky Boot’s sensational eight-piece orchestra.

Supporting the original design team are Kevin Depinet (associate scenic designer), Jim Hall (associate costume designer), Jeremy Cunningham (associate lighting designer), David Partridge (associate sound designer), and Sabana Majeed (associate hair designer).

Kinky Boots is presented by Troika Entertainment LLC. Casting is by Wojcik|Seay Casting. Chris Kane (dance captain), Baker, and Madeline Fansler are swings. Jessica Walling is production stage manager.

You can travel 3000 miles to New York and see Kinky Boots on Broadway where it’s still going strong at over 2000 performances and counting, or you can drive on down to Costa Mesa from now till Sunday where Lance Bordelon, Jos M. Banks, and an entire stageful of triple-threats are giving their Broadway counterparts a run for their hot-ticket money. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.