Kinky Boots Comes to the 5th Ave.

The cast of the First National Tour of Kinky Boots, coming to The 5th Avenue Theatre.
​Photo by Matthew Murphy

Seattle’s 5^th Avenue Theatre’s latest show—or should I say extravaganza— is the smash Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which has just begun its national tour.

Despite the raucous music, wildly decadent costumes and flashy lighting effects, Kinky Boots is at heart a touching little story with a simple message about acceptance, courage and perseverance. Based on the hit movie of the same name, it tells the story of Charlie Price (Steven Booth), a young man struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his life who is tasked with saving the dying shoe factory in Northampton, England he has inherited from his father. On a trip to London with his fiancée, Nicola (Grace Stockdale), he meets a drag queen named Lola (Kyle Taylor Parker) and they talk about the flamboyant boots with high heels that drag queens wear and how they can’t hold up to the weight of men. Charlie flashes on building sturdy “kinky boots” as a means of saving the factory.

 Kyle Taylor Parker stars as Lola in the First National Tour of Kinky Boots, coming to The 5th Avenue Theatre. Photo by Matthew Murphy

It’s the story of how Charlie brings in Lola to help create a line of boots and how the middle class workers in the factory react to welcoming a drag queen into their world, and ultimately about the touching and very real relationship between Charlie and Lola. And of course every musical must have a love triangle. This one involves Charlie and his selfish and manipulative fiancée and Lauren (Lindsay Nicole Chambers), the sweet factory worker with the secret crush on him.

Kinky Boots the musical is based on the hit movie of the same title, which was in turn based on a true story. The book for the musical was written by the great Harvey Fierstein with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell.

Mitchell said he wanted the realism of the working-class British world suffused with the fabulousness of the theater. “I come from Paw-Paw, Michigan. It’s complete working class and there’s lot of my roots in those people,” Mitchell said. “I went to Northampton myself and hung out. And I toured the shoe factories . . . I knew the fabulous part of it; I knew I could do that part. I wanted to know what the real part was.”

Parker, who was one of “Lola’s Angels” in the original Broadway production and played the part of Lola many times as an understudy, certainly has the fabulous part down pat, and he is believable and real and down to earth. There have been many, many portrayals of drag queens with stereotypical swishiness, but there is none of that in Parker’s portrayal. And he’s a hell of a dancer.

Booth, who is endearing as Charlie, has performed in Glory Days and Avenue Q on Broadway. He has a terrific voice and good moves—especially when he puts on the boots for the big finale (with credit to Mitchell and Booth for not overdoing it). The duet between Lola and Charlie, “Not My Father’s Son,” is one of the most moving moments in the play and one of the few quiet songs in a play replete with rocking show tunes. The other quiet and moving ballad is Lola’s solo on “Hold Me in Your Heart.”

The first couple of songs, “Price & Son Theme” and “The Most Beautiful Thing in the World,” both performed by the full company, could have used a little more pizazz. But then it kicks into high gear when we visit the club where Lola and the Angels perform (“Land of Lola”).

Act one ends with a full-company rendition of the upbeat song, “Everybody Say Yeah”—an exultant celebration with dancing on a moving conveyor belt. Act two also ends with a celebratory anthem, “Raise You Up/Just Be,” again with the whole company and this time with a knockout light show (lighting designer Kenneth Posner, whose most impressive lighting in this show was the multitude of soft spots on Lola’s solo on “Hold Me in Your Heart”).

Striking performances were turned in by Stockdale as Nicole and Chambers as Lauren, and by Joe Coots as Don, a tough-guy factory worker.

David Rockwell’s scenic design, the Price & Son shoe factor interior and exterior, is gritty and impressive.

One of the very few sore spots for me was an unnecessary maudlin moment when they went overboard trying to milk sympathy at the end of the beautiful “Hold Me in Your Heart” by bringing Lola’s father into the scene.

Interesting behind-the-scenes stories were provided by Mitchell in a print interview provided to the press. One of those was that they had to build the conveyor belts and try them out, and “I got on it and I wiped out, probably four or five times . . .” so they added bars for safety which became part of the choreography as dancers used the bars for swinging and jumping. The other interesting back story was that like the original factory they had to go through many trials in order to make boots what would stand up to large men dancing in them during eight two-and-a-half-hour shows a week.

Kinky Boots won six Tony awards, including Best Musical, Best Score (Cyndi Lauper) and Best Choreography (Jerry Mitchell).

Tues-Wed. 7:30 p.m., Thurs-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat- 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. 1:30 and 7 p.m.

5^th Ave. Theatre, 1308 5^th Ave., Seattle,

Tickets start at $45.25, (206) 625-1900 or (888) 5^TH-4TIX.