Kinky Boots @ Uptown Players
—Jan Farrington
Wowzer.
Ladies? Gentlemen? Those of you who “have yet to make up your mind?” Run, walk, skate, or totter on stilettos if you must. Just make sure you get to Uptown Player’s production of the musical Kinky Boots before it closes at the end of July.
Created from the 2005 British movie of the same name, Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper turned this story of a failing, old-fashioned UK shoe company (rescued by making “kinky” boots for drag queens) into a joyful story of different people finding they have more humanity in common than they’d ever have guessed. And if you look just a bit harder, you’ll find a moving story of fathers and sons at the heart of things.
On the night I attended, a near-capacity audience at the Kalita Humphreys Theater cheered, roared, clapped along, and spontaneously yelled “Yeah!” (even when the song “Everybody Say Yeah” wasn’t playing).
So many shout outs, so little time.
Let’s start with the top. Lee Walter as drag queen Lola is beyond superb. Touching, elegant, bawdy— gorgeous in gowns and natty as hell in tweeds (as Simon, his “birth” persona)—Walter belts a wonderful “Sex is in the Heel” and breaks our heart with “Not My Father’s Son.” That’s a duet with the show’s other great lead, Max J. Swarner as Charlie, inheritor of the shoe factory. Charlie is facing a choice: find a way to keep the family business open (and his childhood friends employed), or sell out and head for London with chilly fiancée Nicola (Presley Duyck). Like Walter, Swarmer sings up a storm in “Soul of a Man” and “Everybody Say Yeah,” accompanied by the terrific live band led by Vonda K. Bowling just offstage.
Perhaps because we get a glimpse of Lola/Simon and Charlie as boys (played by Andre Reed and Ace Rainey), these two charismatic actors pull on our emotions right from the start. We care about the fate of the factory, and would love to see Charlie and Lola become friends.
The great actor/writer Harvey Fierstein, as usual, has crafted a funny and truth-telling story, and Cyndi Lauper (in her first time out as songwriter of a musical) gives us some heart-tugging ballads and a whole set of catchy club songs. Directed by John de los Santos, (choreographed by him and Evor Wright, who concentrated on Lola’s spectacular dance moves) and bedazzled by Gregg Barnes’ costumes and Scott Guenther’s lights, Kinky Boots is a visual delight.
Not the least of the fun is the contrast between the working folk of the factory, in their smocks and sensible shoes—and Lola’s impossibly leggy crew of six “Angels” (Kyle Fleig, Isaiah Christopher-Lord Harris, Domanick Hubbard, Joshua McLemore, Allen Porterie, and Sammy Swim). Think Elves and Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings: almost two different species, at first glance. But late in the show, when the two groups pair up for a gleeful dance, they’re all just mates—drag queens and shoemakers having what the Brits call a “knees up.”
It’s no secret we hope Charlie’s fiancée will fall down the elevator shaft—or at least piss off to London without him. Fortunately, the plot supplies Charlie with an alternative, smart and pretty factory worker Lauren (Rachel Nicole Poole), who comes up with the idea of looking for a “niche market” to fill with some kind of new shoe…er, boot. Poole matches Walter and Warner as a great belter of songs. Her solo “The History of Wrong Guys” isn’t just spit-take funny; it immediately makes us root for Lauren to wind up with Charlie.
The ensemble does a great job with some big numbers, including “Sex Is in the Heel” and “Raise You Up/Just Be.” Clear-voiced Spencer Laboda shines with Swarmer on the rousing “Take What You Got,” and Trey Tolleson steps out of the crowd as Don, the tough guy who sneers at Lola’s “frocks” but comes around at last. And Tony Martin is the perfect anchor as George, the factory foreman who’s known Charlie forever.
Kinky Boots won six Tony Awards following its Broadway debut in 2013, including Best Musical. It’s a joyful, humane show with a great message of acceptance—“Just Be”—that sticks with you long after the cherry-red boots and the dazzling lights are packed away.
WHEN: Through July 31
WHERE: Kalita Humphreys Theater, Dallas
WEB: uptownplayers.org
