“Kinky Boots”

Cyndi Lauper (Music & Lyrics); Harvey Fierstein (Book)

Sometimes it just feels right to start with dessert.  When a musical ends with a stage full of people of every shape, size, race, sex, and sexual orientation all dancing in stiletto-heeled boots that rise to hug their hips, it is difficult not to start there with the review’s praise.  With voices rising harmoniously in sheer ecstasy, shoe factory workers and drag queens join together in heart-pumping harmony as one community singing, “Just be who you wanna be; never let ‘em tell you who you ought to be … Just be beautiful.”  A kaleidoscope of glittery color in costumes, wigs, and make-up flash before us as gloriously decorated, leather-covered legs fly skyward, making it quite clear why Kinky Boots received thirteen Tony nominations and six awards (like Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Costumes, Best Score, among others).  The team of Cyndi Lauper (music and lyrics) and Harvey Fierstein (book) took New York and the country by storm in 2013, and the energy and excellence of that original production lives mightily on in the current touring 2016 production residing at SHN’s Golden Gate Theatre.

Based on true events,Kinky Boots recounts how in Northampton, England Charlie Price avoids closing an inherited shoe factory whose business is failing and thus leading to laying off all its long-time workers whom he has known since birth.  He saves the plant and the jobs by turning the production line from one making men’s dress shoes to one making drag queens’ boots.  The journey to the musical’s triumphant, “Just Be” finale begins with a chance meeting between twenty-something Charlie and a London drag performer named Lola – ‘chance’ meaning Lola knocks Charlie out with her boot as she defends herself against taunting hooligans while he is trying to help save what he thought was a six-foot-tall, helpless damsel.   Lola’s heel is busted in the process (as is Charlie’s head and pride), leading eventually to a partnership between the two when Charlie realizes there is a niche market no one else is satisfying — feminine boots strong enough and elegantly wild enough for the world of cross-dressing men.  As Lola tells him, “I’d give my tit for a shoe that would stand up for me.”

The road toward the story’s emotion-high ending is one full of potholes like workers who want nothing to do with ‘poofs’ and sidetracks like Charlie’s London-bound fiancé who wants nothing to do with Northampton and certainly not with a dying shoe factory.  And then there is Charlie himself, who is carrying unresolved, inner pressures to live up to his now-deceased dad’s expectations and who has jumped in over his head to get a product ready in three weeks for the premiere, European shoe show in Milan, Italy. 

J. Harrison Ghee steps with six-inch heels into the role of Lola (aka as Simon when not in drag) that won Billie Porter wide acclaim and a Best Actor in a Musical Tony.  His Lola fully commands the stage every time she swanks onto a nightclub’s (or even nursing home’s) stage or sashays down the factory’s metal steps.  Lola in her short dresses that show off her long, slender legs can give it as much as she has had to take it all her life, telling her audience, “No need to be embarrassed, You love to look; and I love to be looked at.”  With a voice that shouts ‘diva’ with every reverberating note rendered, Lola also can raise those stunning legs well over her head, can move with sexy style her glamorously shaped body, and can send those muscled arms flying fast and furious in full drag queen fashion.

Lola’s six Angels — equally tall and beautiful queens always decked out in flowing gowns, tight shorts, or g-stringed nothings for eye-popping effects – often join her in song and strut for numbers that send the audience reeling in delight.  Together, they wow in “Land of Lola” with full-on splits and parades of true pizzazz; and they ignite the stage with the humor and naughtiness of “Sex Is in the Heel” as shoes find butts and groins to rub in passing while they sing, “Jack it up ‘cause I’m no flat tire, mack it up six inches higher, the sex is in the heel.”  These Angels even figure out in “Raise You Up” how to dance with their factory worker pals on four moving conveyor belts, with bodies tall and small, thin and round careening from one moving platform to the next.

J. Harrison Ghee brings more than just explosive song and dance to his Lola.  Dressed in a man’s suit, he sings in a quiet, conversational manner, “Not My Father’s Son,” telling in song a heart-felt story of how he did not size up to what his father expected of a boy and then building in volume and intensity to a climatic, “I fin’lly turned around to see that I could just be me.”  Later, in full white gown draping to the floor, Lola begins with tempered style and grace, “Hold Me in Your Heart,” rising to an ending where movement of voice and body peak for an effect that is jaw-dropping and audience-winning.

Leaving a positive but somewhat less memorable impression in his pivotal role as Charlie Price is Adam Kaplan.  Too often, it feels that the actor is playing a part rather then becoming that part.  The role of Charlie rides a big, emotional rollercoaster as he faces doubts about his competencies to lead and to love, but in Mr. Kaplan’s hands, the ride sometimes looks and feels more muted and less spontaneous and genuine that it should.  When contemplating in song his “Step One” to “just put one set forward … that I may be the hero who reinvents the wheel,” his boyish voice with ever-present nasal qualities works but does not totally sell.  But later, when he turns it on express his regrets and disappointments in Cyndi Lauper’s harder-beat music (“Soul of a Man”), this Charlie finds his voice and rises to sing with the kind of authenticity and vocal confidence missing earlier.

A number of more minor roles make their marks of distinction, both in humorous and heart-warming ways, as this inspiring story unfolds.  As factory manager, George (Jim J. Bullock) bridges the often yawning gaps between the young owner Charlie and his skeptical employees while in the background, allows us to watch his own, humor-filled coming out.  Bearded and burly Don (Aaron Walpole) bullies with spits and snarls Lola and the Angels before slowly transforming before our eyes into a smiling friend who proudly sings in “Just Be,” “You change the world when you change your mind.”  Other factory workers create distinct personalities in their short moments of spotlight (Shawna M. Hamic, Patty Lohr, Damien Brett, among others), resulting in an ensemble that knows how to individualize facial reactions and body movements while also blending appropriately into a chorus of choreographed excellence.

One more standout must be acknowledged among this cast.  As Charlie-pursuing, love-deprived Lauren (promoted from the factory floor to be Charlie’s assistant), Tiffany Engen never misses filling each minute with a spontaneous something that sends the audience howling.  Spastic gestures of her head, hair, and hands; hilarious antics like blow-drying her sweaty armpits after Charlie happens to look at her; or one more sideline look of wide-eyed adoration to Charlie (ones he does not notice but we do) are her constant fare. 

For all its staying power as a crowd-pleaser, Kinky Boots is showing its age after a decade of astounding headway in LGBT rights –including the current daily headlines of presidential statements about transgender rights in kids and adults alike.  In a musical where the straight guy finally gets his girl and the burly factory workers brag about their sex lives, the drag queens prancing about in knock-‘em-dead, sexy outfits (often highly erotic) never get to express one note of love.  Harvey Fierstein’s book misses the chance for us to see Lola as a person desiring, much less finding, the love of her life as Charlie gets to do.  The opportunity is wide open even for curious George to hook up with an Angel in the background but is never taken.  When I was first awe-struck by the original Broadway musical, this missing element never occurred to me; but after the events of the past ten years, the contrast between Charlie and Lola’s love lives struck me like lightning in this current production.

While the actors named and unnamed deserve so much credit for this evening of a rejoicing good time, Director Jerry Mitchell and his team of designers Gregg Barnes (costumes), Josh Marquette (hair), David Rockwell (scenic), Kenneth Posner (lighting), and John Shivers (sound) really ice the cake with a production that is Broadway-quality stunning in every respect.  Conductor Ryan Fielding Garrett leads a combination of touring and local musicians to underscore in sound why this score of Lauper’s won a Tony.

Kinky Bootsrevisits San Francisco at SHN’s Golden Gate Theatre for a show so worth seeing, whether for the first, second, or whatever time.  How can anyone pass up the chance to “feel the fire to take you higher”?

Rating: 4 E

Kinky Boots continues through May 22, 2016 at SHN’s Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor Street, San Francisco.  Tickets are available at Tickets are available at https://www.shnsf.com.