At the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Ont.
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Music and Lyrics by Cyndi Lauper
Directed and Choreographed by Jerry Mitchell
Scenic Design by David Rockwell
Costumes by Gregg Barnes
Lighting by Kenneth Posner
Sound by John Shivers
Starring: A.J. Bridel
Graham Scott Fleming
Alan Mingo Jr.
Daniel Williston
Sandy Winsby
A lively, joyful musical with a wonderful message in which the singing and dancing are better than the acting.
The Story. Fathers and sons. Fathers wanting their sons to be just like they envision them being and the kids wanting to be left alone to be what they want to be.
Charlie Price’s father wants Charlie to carry on the family business, making fine men’s shoes in provincial England. He wants to go to London with his girlfriend to work in marketing/advertising. He does go and breaks his father’s heart. Soon after his father dies and Charlie has to return home to pick up the pieces and run his father’s shoe factory. Business is terrible and looks like they will go under.
Lola (aka Simon) is a drag queen whose father wanted him to be a boxer as he was and smacked him around when the kid preferred to wear his mother’s high heels and clothes. So Lola can sashay with the best of them, but he has a mean right cross too, when he needs it.
Strangely enough Lola and Charlie meet. Lola provides the solution for Charlie’s failing factory. Instead of making fine shoes that no one wants to buy, Charlie and his company will make ‘kinky boots’ for drag queens that look like they are for a woman but will be sturdy enough for the men who will wear them. And Lola will design them.
The Production. David Rockwell’s set of the factory is properly drab and so evokes the life in the provinces. The dazzle comes from Gregg Barnes’s costumes, which for Lola’s Angels are bright and garish. The centre of attention is of course Lola, drag queen extraordinaire and Alan Mingo Jr. plays ‘her’ with exaggerated style and joy. Mingo has a graceful, sashaying body language that makes one sit up and take notes. He underscores ‘her’ lines with a flounce and a flap of ‘her’ impressive false eye-lashes which seem to have a life of their own. My concern is that Mingo overplays the dialogue and pushes the punch lines instead of floating them with offhandedness.
As Charlie, Graham Scott Fleming is earnest and serious. When he sings his big second act number, “Soul of a Man” he’s overwrought. Perhaps that’s how he is directed. For me it is a bit much. As Don, Daniel Williston is subtle in his sneering. It’s a funny, effective performance. Much of the rest of the cast overacts or screeches.
But Kinky Boots is a lively dance show with a terrific score and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. The book by Harvey Fierstein illuminates the struggles of two totally different men who are joined by their need to prove their worth to their fathers or to themselves. And the show’s anthem or theme, “you change the world when you change your mind” goes to the heart.
Run: plays to November 8, 2015.
Cast: 28, 19 men, 9 women
Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, approx.
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