![]() One seemingly big change that turns out not to matter is the shrinking of the band to half of its Broadway size. “The sex is in the heel,” as one song proclaims, but it would have been nice to transfer some from the boot to the character. The book also suggests an intriguing line of thought when Fierstein writes that the number “What a Woman Wants” expresses Lola’s “daring sexuality - as a cross-dressing heterosexual male.” You will have to stare extra-hard and perhaps do a bit of projecting to see that onstage, where Lola essentially manifests as a magical being. According to Fierstein’s recent memoir, “I Was Better Last Night,” the show took nearly five years to complete, so you have to wonder how nobody could find an hour to refine this temporary personality transplant. ![]() Among them are the slightly preachy tone as well as Charlie’s sudden dark turn. But don’t worry, the conveyor belts still turn into treadmills for the exhilarating “Everybody Say Yeah” - a sterling example of Mitchell’s showmanship.Ĭonsidering this faithfulness to the original template, it is not surprising that the story’s less successful moments remain, too. It looks as if Hope might be capable of coming up with her own shtick, and it would have been interesting to see the supporting cast receive a little more agency. Danielle Hope, for example, is very funny as Lauren, an employee at the factory, and her big solo, “The History of Wrong Guys,” is perfectly calibrated, but the rendition faithfully duplicates Annaleigh Ashford’s, who originated the role on Broadway. More subtle are tiny tweaks such as Lola’s welcome greeting, which has been expanded to “Ladies, gentlemen, theys, them and those who have yet to make up their minds!”īut, overall, the show looks and feels like a slightly sized-down photocopy of the original. ![]() Simon’s wounded vulnerability is never too far underneath the glitter and takes center stage in the 11 o’clock power ballad “Hold Me in Your Heart.” The reveal of that song’s context hit harder in the original production because we had seen a little more of Lola’s back story - the roles of Young Simon and Young Charlie have been cut here. Alter ego band mass. schedule 2019 movie#That thread was also in the 2005 movie that inspired the musical, but here, the message feels super-Fiersteinian. Both characters have complicated relationships with their fathers, and Lola shows not just Charlie but everyone onstage that there are many ways to be a man. Lola provides him with life coaching and the idea that will eventually reinvent the business - to create and build “tubular sex,” that is, boots that are simultaneously strong and sexy. There are expectations.Ĭharlie is the earnest bloke trying to save his late father’s failing shoe company because the jobs of people he has known since he was a child depend on it. This, after all, is the role for which Billy Porter won a Tony in 2013, and it is a textbook Fierstein creation - bold and brassy, with big hair, bright nail polish and quick-fire quips barely concealing the scars of pain and rejection. The Britain-set show, in which the statuesque performer Lola saves a provincial shoe factory by inspiring a line of toweringly outré footwear, is now running Off Broadway.īut unlike the comebacks of shows such as “Jersey Boys” and “Rock of Ages,” which both reopened at the underground theatrical mall New World Stages, “Kinky Boots” is at the spacious Stage 42, which stands on 42nd Street and is large enough to accommodate a 25-person company and a minimally downsized version of the director Jerry Mitchell’s va-va-voom production.īut enough about real estate: How is Lola? ![]() It was only April 2019 that the Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein musical “Kinky Boots” closed on Broadway after a six-year run, and already it’s back in town. ![]() You can’t keep a drag queen down, at least not for long. ![]()
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