Kinky Boots Kicks The Press: Taking in the Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein Show

Jerry Mitchell, Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper/ Photo: Gavin Bond

By Johnny Oleksinski

The Broadway-bound “Kinky Boots” strutted its first public steps here in Chicago this morning.

The musical, based on the quietly released 2005 British film of the same name, continues a growing trend of song-and-dance shows, derived, not only from film properties, but specifically from cult classics or flicks previously overlooked by the critics and the masses.

Foreign films like “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert” and “Billy Elliot,” both of which resemble “Kinky Boots” in subject matter and British commonwealth twang, didn’t rake in the kind of box-office dough that “Legally Blonde” or “Sister Act” did, and the onstage adaptations mostly shied away from their cinematic counterparts. Resultantly, theater patrons and reviewers were much more receptive to those movie-musicals’ artistic virtues than they were to those of film-hit-but-stage-mega-flop, “Ghost.”

And that’s not a bad plan. After all, cult classics, Hollywood properties or not, come with a perceived artistic credibility that, say, “The Little Mermaid” is somewhat lacking. Just look at “Once,” the Tony Award-winning Best Musical based on the charming Irish independent musical film. Amidst concurrent cries that film-to-stage adaptations are destroying the American musical landscape are exuberant shouts of jubilation that “Once” is, at long last, bringing high art back to the Broadway stage. Not to mention bringing in over one million dollars each week at the relatively tiny Bernard Jacobs Theatre. But, like “Bring It On,” which toured Chicago earlier this year and now calls Broadway its home, “Once” was still a movie first.

“Kinky Boots” ain’t aiming to be the highfalutin’ son of Sondheim though. With music and lyrics by first-time stage composer Cyndi Lauper and a book by the always fun and delightfully campy Harvey Fierstein, “Kinky Boots” is poised to be an appealing mix of glittery fluff and life-validating sentiment. Lauper spoke today of her musical’s working-class attitude, saying it’s about “real people…who saved jobs, which is very relevant today. Because they thought outside the box.” That’s for sure. Centered around a drag queen named Lola’s unlikely business venture with Charlie, a struggling shoe maker, it blends a natural performance sensibility with a wacky buddy cop structure and an inspiring message of social acceptance.

A message that producer Daryl Roth was immediately drawn to when she first saw the film at the Sundance Festival in 2006. “I ran to some strange mountain in Utah that had no cell service and called my son in New York,” she said. Her son, Jordan Roth, a Broadway power player, himself, is a stage producer and a cofounder of Jujamcyn Theaters.

Like any press conference, details were kept to a minimum—the big picture being paramount. The producers, the creators, and the terribly appealing four young performers (Stark Sands, Annaleigh Ashford, Celina Carvajal and Billy Porter) all spoke with requisite affinity for the Chicago theater community and Chicago audiences, who, given the nature and venue of the show, will likely be Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri audiences as well.

Above the pandering, however, was a very sweet and honest story told by director Jerry Mitchell (“Hairspray”). As a young boy, Mitchell was one of those spunky Michigan audience members making the two-hour drive down to the Loop to see touring shows like “A Chorus Line” “at the Shubert (now Bank of America) Theatre. Mitchell’s in-the-know corporate acquisition quip did not go unappreciated by the room full of longtime Windy City entertainment journalists. After excitedly watching “A Chorus Line” and learning the opening audition dance from Marvin Hamlisch’s masterpiece, Mitchell was cast in that same tour a mere two years later. A star is born!

But of course, the cameras, microphones, pens and notebooks all leapt for Ms. Lauper, looking exactly as you’d want her to, and legendary book writer and performer Harvey Fierstein (book: “La Cage Aux Folles,” “Newsies,” actor: “Hairspray”). The two perfectly paired creatives had a professional reverence for each other on the platform, but the electricity of the partnership came across zestfully in their off-the-cuff moments. Pointing down at Lauper’s heels, Fierstein said, “her boots are fabulous, but my shoes are nice,” and revealed his bulky sneakers covered in neon purples and greens. I sure hope that the essence of Harvey Fierstein’s unexpected and certainly very kinky boots is alive and well in his new musical venture on Randolph Street.

“Kinky Boots” begins previews at the Bank of America Theatre, 18 West Monroe, on October 2, and plays a five-week engagement through November 4.  For tickets, call (800)775-2000.