When one drag show closes, another drag show opens. Hot on the heels of the two wildly successful Broadway seasons for productions featuring characters who dress in drag, four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein and Grammy Award-winning pop music legend Cyndi Lauper have teamed up to create Kinky Boots for your viewing pleasure.
Another film-turned-musical, Kinky Boots is set in Northern England and is based on the true story of a young man who is forced to save his family’s shoe factory. “Charlie Price” has no idea how he will take over and rescue the family business after the death of this father. Things take a turn for the better once fabulous drag queen “Lola” enters the picture. Together they not only transform “Price’s” family legacy, they transform the entire community.
Inspired by a true story and based on the film, Kinky Boots features a warm and humorous Book by theatre wordsmith Harvey Fierstein who has worked on La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy, and his latest Broadway success Newsies. Making her Broadway and theatrical debut, Grammy Award-winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper has created a richly diverse musical score, providing both the Music and the Lyrics.
Kinky Books is helmed by veteran director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, who is a Tony Award-winning Choreographer. Mitchell has spear-headed the dancing and movement for the Broadway productions of Hairspray, La Cage aux Folles, and the Tony-winning Catch Me If You Can, as well as the “Broadway Bares” fundraiser series.
Kinky Boots will play perform a Broadway try-out at the Bank of America Theatre located at 18 West Monroe Street in Chicago, Illinois. The pre-Broadway run begins October 2, 2012, and goes through November 4, 2012, before it transfers to New York City.
Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced the full cast of the Chicago production that will transfer to the Broadway stage.
Tony Award nominee Stark Sands of Journey’s End and the Tony-winning American Idiot and Billy Porter of Angels in America and Smokey Joe’s Café lead a huge cast of thirty-two performers that includes Annaleigh Ashford (Rent; Legally Blonde), Celina Carvajal (Spiegelworld's Empire), Daniel Sherman (Desire Under the Elms), Marcus Neville (The Full Monty), Paul Canaan (Legally Blonde), Kevin Smith Kirkwood (How to Save the World…), Kyle Taylor Parker (In the Heights National Tour), Kyle Post (Rent), Charlie Sutton (How To Succeed...), Joey Taranto (Rock of Ages), Andy Kelso (Mamma Mia!), Tory Ross (Cry-Baby), Jen Perry (Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark), Josh Caggiano (Les Misérables at the Ahmanson Theatre), and Aaron Bantum (Finian’s Rainbow)
The ensemble is rounded out by Adinah Alexander (The Wedding Singer), Eric Anderson (South Pacific), Eugene Barry-Hill (The Lion King), Stephen Berger (The Pajama Game), Caroline Bowman (Wicked), Sandra DeNise (Shrek the Musical National Tour), Eric Leviton (Seussical National Tour), Ellyn Marie Marsh (Priscilla Queen of the Desert), John Jeffrey Martin (Hairspray), Nathan Peck (La Cage aux Folles), Robert Pendilla (Wicked), Lucia Spina (South Pacific), Sebastian Hedges Thomas (Priscilla Queen of the Desert), Marquise Neal, and Clifton Oliver (In the Heights).
The design team for Kinky Boots will include Scenic Design by Tony Award nominee David Rockwell and Tony Award-winning Costume Designer Gregg Barnes, who most recently worked on the stunning revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. The Lighting will be designed by Tony Award-winning Lighting Designer Kenneth Posner. Drama Desk Award nominee John Shivers will cover Sound Design, with Josh Marquette on Hair Design, Randy Houston Mercer doing the Make-up Design, and Telsey + Company overseeing Casting. Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations are by Tony Award-winning Orchestrator Stephen Oremus, who worked on The Book of Mormon and Wicked.
