KINKY BOOTS

      Though it still needs a bit of editing in the second act (I saw an early preview), KINKY BOOTS is a delightful musical entertainment with one knockout performance.
      The musical is based on a small British film about a young man who inherits a failing men's shoe company and decides to turn it around by making shoes for drag queens. His partner in this endeavor is a drag queen, Lola. Harvey Fierstein's adaptation emphasizes his usual themes of self-acceptance (remember "I Am What I Am" from LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) and celebration of diversity. We're in Fierstein territory and, like his early hit about a drag queen, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, KINKY BOOTS can get a little preachy. Nonetheless, KINKY BOOTS and NEWSIES show that Fierstein is the best book writer for musicals we have these days. He takes the story characters and telling seriously in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition. Cyndi Lauper's musical numbers are great fun and highly theatrical. As in earlier big musicals about drag queens (LA CAGE, PRISCILLA), the drag performers get the best numbers. Like most pop hit makers who turn to writing musicals, Lauper is better at "performance" numbers than songs that have to develop character or propel the narrative. This is a good score, though, literally toe tapping. Her lyrics are often very witty.
     The two leads, Stark Sands as Charlie, the owner of the shoe factory, and Billy Porter as Simon/Lola, the trained boxer turned drag queen, are good, but Porter's Lola steals the show. He has most of the funny lines and musical numbers and he's terrific. If Porter doesn't win the Tony, I will be very surprised. Sands has to carry the serious elements in the show and gets a couple of numbers including a powerful eleven o'clock power ballad. He's a charming actor, but not much of a singer. Charlie is the central character in the story, but there's no way Sands can compete with Porter's Lola, who gets all the best material and runs with it. A word has to be said about the six guys who play the "Angels," drag queens who are Lola's back up singers and dancers. Like the Cagelles of yore, they're an integral part of the show and they're fabulous -- the most convincing drag queens I have ever seen.
     Jerry Mitchell's production is simple and clever, putting the performers down front. I liked the way David Rockwell's factory set became, with a few changes, everything from a pub boxing ring to a Milan fashion runway. Lauper's score is well served by Michael Oremus's arrangements.
     I don't want to sound lie the P.C. Police here, but one thing did gnaw at me. Charlie, the straight guy, has all the love interest (boy loses uppity girlfriend, boy gains much cooler girlfriend), but, though he talks a lot about sex, drag queen Lola seems to be a eunuch with no sex life or love life. In his past shows, Fierstein wrote love stories about drag queens. I'd hate to see us go back to a time when in order to be "safe" for straight audiences, characters like Simon/Lola can talk about sex, but can't have any.
     I saw this early preview with a packed house that clearly loved every moment of KINKY BOOTS. What's not to like?
KINKY BOOTS. Al Hirschfeld Theatre. March 8, 2013.