"Kinky Boots" at the Al Hirschfeld Theater
It is rare that the relatively new phenomenon of what
simplistic critics call a “crowd-pleasing” musical should be legitimately good,
and yet Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s “Kinky Boots” is just such a
show. From the very beginning of this
high-powered show, the audience is a feral beast that cannot be restrained in
its manic applause. This is mostly
testament to Lauper’s score, which is stellar in places if slightly
unprofessional in others, but also to the incomparable performances of the two
male leads, Stark Sands and Billy Porter.
Based on
the 2005 film, “Boots” concerns Charlie Price (Sands), the heir to a Northampton
shoe factory who doesn’t want it, and his eventual conversion, with the help of
Lola (Porter) a drag queen with a heart of gold (oh boy), of said factory to an
assembly line for sturdy fetish footwear for transvestites, or, as Lola calls
them, “two and a half feet of irresistible, tubular, sex.”
The story,
by comparison to most of the invigorating score, is rather formulaic—and by
extension, so is Mr. Fierstein’s book.
Here is the at first reluctant milquetoast who learns to try new things
and be open to new ideas (Price), here is the homosexual minority who opens
everyone’s mind with his sassy approach to life (Lola), here is the resident
homophobe—fat and white—whose mind must be changed by force (Don, a factory
worker, played by Daniel Stewart Sherman).
(Have you ever noticed that in any musical featuring only one gay
character, either only one person is homophobic or everyone is?) Price and Lola are resentful of their fathers
(big surprise), as we are ploddingly informed in “Not My Father’s Son,” Ms. Lauper’s
worst number and the plot’s weakest point.
All the boxes are checked. This
is why, in some places, “Boots” can seem uninteresting.
But fear
not. In practically every other number
featuring Lola, the musical becomes a masterpiece. Billy Porter, who won the Tony for Best Actor
for this performance, is unbelievably talented.
Perhaps his talent is more on display than that of his cast-mates
because Ms. Lauper knows how to write for Lola’s personality. His (her?) numbers, like the simple but
fantastically well-written “Land of Lola,” the slinky tango “What a Woman
Wants,” and the brash “In this Corner,” are the best in the show because Ms.
Lauper is not trying to write for a story.
In other numbers, like “Step One,” in which Price lays out his plan for
the factory, her lyrics don’t match up, because she’s unfamiliar with this
format. Ms. Lauper’s best work comes
when she focuses on the pop-driven music that has made her a success. These numbers come along on one of two
occasions. One: whenever Lola is on the
stage, and two: whenever a number performed by the full cast captures the full
exuberance always possible in Ms. Lauper’s work, especially in the two
act-enders, “Everybody Say Yeah” and “Raise You Up.”
Mr. Sands
is a good center around which the story can orbit, but we are expected to
presume relationships with his coworkers of which we are never adequately made
aware. Beyond that, things happen too
suddenly to Charlie Price—he is adamantly against running the factory, then for
it, then against the kinky boots, then for them, then friendly to Lola, then
utterly disdainful of his (her?) sexual identity. Mr. Sands does a good job, however, in juggling
these conflicting emotions, and is nearly as versatile a performer as his
co-star Mr. Porter.
All in all,
“Kinky Boots” is worth seeing for some of the better numbers, even if some of
the worse numbers are worth forgetting.
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