Nicola (Brianna Stoute) and Christian Douglas (Charlie) contemplate a better life.
Following in the footsteps of the 2013 Tony winner for Best Musical, this polished, Off-Broadway revival of Kinky Boots shines under the direction and choreography of Jerry Mitchell, who helmed that Broadway production, and stars Callum Francis, recreating the role of the drag queen, Lola, after having previously donned the titillating titular zip-ups on Broadway as well as in London and Australia.
Lola (Callum Francis, right) and company explore “What a Woman Wants.”
With songs by Cyndi Lauper that are by turns introspective and immodest, and a tricky book by Harvey Fierstein that asks equal amounts of sympathy for its two very different yet very alike protagonists, the show is kicked into hyperdrive whenever Lola makes an entrance. Mitchell’s staging and Kenneth Posner’s lighting conspire to continually throw Francis into the spotlight. The actor does not disappoint. He gives a bravura performance full of physical and emotional feats of skill. Whatever Lola wants, she does not always get, and Francis makes sure we feel the sting.
But Lola is no opening act. Instead, the show’s early scenes take place primarily in a failing shoe factory in Northampton, outside of London. Here we meet Charlie (Christian Douglas), a young man on the cusp of inheriting this family business along with its sagging sales. It’s not that the workers aren’t committed, loyal and ultimately lovable, but Charlie is in desperate need of a profitable idea to avoid laying them off.
Charlie (Douglas) sings out. Photographs by Matt Murphy.
Meanwhile, his fiancée, Nicola (Brianna Stoute), has other plans for him, involving a fashionable life in London and waving goodbye to the factory that Charlie’s father so dearly loved. With scenes zigzagging between locales, it is no wonder Charlie one night finds himself tipsy on a dark London street where three hooligans are harassing a woman. Charlie comes to her aid and gets a boot to the chin as his reward before discovering that it was no lady, but rather Lola, sporting biceps that would put Charlie’s to shame.
In an act of healing (and heeling), Lola takes Charlie to her Blue Angel nightclub, where she and six fabulous backup drag artists blow up the stage with “Land of Lola,” a rousing anthem where Lola succinctly proclaims, “I am freedom, I’m constriction, a potpourri of contradiction.” She is also a performer in need of better footwear, so it’s back to Northampton where Lola gives Charlie and company a lesson in flair, via the rousing “Sex Is in the Heel.” Charlie soon realizes that manufacturing ladies boots for men is exactly the niche market he needs to both save the factory and bring purpose to his life.
Distracted by such matters, Charlie fails to see that the line worker he promotes into a leadership position is also clearly the gal for him. (Apparently, this worksite lacks an HR department.) Lauren (usually Danielle Hope but stirringly performed by understudy Maria Wirries on the night I attended) can’t keep her eyes off the boss, despite an unfortunate list of failed relationships, amusingly chronicled in “The History of Wrong Guys.”
Lola meanwhile, is having doubts of her own. Hired by Charlie now as a designer, Lola reports to work in men’s attire and goes by the birth name of Simon, only to be ridiculed on the factory floor. Charlie soon bonds with Lola over common ground: fathers whose expectations they could not meet. Lola’s dad, we learn, was a boxer who trained his son to fight. “But when I appeared for a fight in a white cocktail dress . . . he disowned me,” Lola divulges before the duo sing a remorseful, “I’m Not My Father’s Son.”
Lola (Francis) and Charlie (Douglas) show off their wares.
It’s a busy Act I, to say the least. But the second act gallops by, solving crises and cranking out dance breaks along the way. Charlie, stressed out from work problems, verbally attacks Lola but turns remorseful soon enough. Nicola goes her own way, opening the door for Lauren’s happiness. Lola finds acceptance from the doubtful factory workers and ultimately saves the day.
Douglas gives a workmanlike performance as Charlie but is in the difficult position of playing a traditional leading man opposite a fireball of a co-lead like Lola. This is most evident in the back-to-back power ballads that precede the finale. Douglas goes first and oversells his sense of failure in the overwrought “Soul of a Man.” Then Francis devours the mournful “Hold Me in Your Heart” with all the spiritual and electrical wattage of a Diana Ross concert.
The finale itself delivers the show’s main theme point-blank: ’“You change the world when you change your mind.” It’s another way of saying, don’t judge a man until you have walked a runway in his boots.
Kinky Boots plays at Stage 42 (422 W. 42nd St). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information visit kinkybootsthemusical.com.
