Kinky Boots

His whole life, Charlie Price has known one truth: The most beautiful thing in the world is a shoe. But when his father dies, leaving him with the family's shoe factory on the skids, Charlie discovers that you really can tell the quality of a man by his shoe -- even if those shoes happen to be ladies' stiletto heels.

In the new Broadway musical "Kinky Boots," Charlie discovers that the key to saving the family business is a drag queen named Lola. Together, they discover that there's a profitable niche market in women's shoes strong and large enough to support a man -- and fabulous enough to save the factory.

The play, inspired by a cult film of the same title, benefits from a faithful adaptation by Harvey Fierstein, and stunning music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. Unlike other film-to-stage adaptations, the musical numbers do not feel forced, but instead flow smoothly as though the occasion would be a natural one for a Northhampton factory worker to burst into song.

Although his tall, confident demeanor initially made him a hard sell, Stark Sands ultimately shines as Charlie Price, the scion to a crumbling shoe empire. After the death of his father, Charlie discovers that the old man has amassed a warehouse full of cancelled shoe orders, with no buyer in sight, and secret plans in the works to cut and run.

After unloading some of the shoes at cost, Charlie reluctantly goes about the heartbreaking process of "making redundant" (aka firing) the factory workers he has known his entire life. Some accept it, others plead, but only young, blonde Lauren (Annaleigh Ashford) lays down a challenge to Charlie: if the current product isn't selling, then make one that will.

Fortuitously for Charlie, he stumbles on his new market while gallantly attempting to protect a big-boned Black woman from some soccer hooligans. Knocked out, Charlie awakens backstage at a drag club, where he encounters big, beautiful Lola -- a larger-than-life Billy Porter, who shines in the role.

"Ladies, gentleman, and those who have yet to make up their mind," Lola shouts out to her audience. She then proceeds to give one knockout drag performance, accompanied by a chorus line of drag queens, which adds quite a bit of sparkle to the show.

"I'd give my left tit for a boot that would stand up to me," Lola quips, as Charlie promises to fix the stiletto heel she has broken in the previous melee. Soon after, Charlie has brokered a deal for Lola to design a line of "transvestite boots" for an upcoming industry show in Milan.

After a nightmare pair of flat-bottomed riding boots in burgundy, Lola leaves Charlie with these instructions: first, that the boot be red, the color of danger and sex and signs that say do not enter; and second, that he is no longer making shoes, but rather "two and a half feet of irresistible, tubular sex." The sex is in the heel, sings Lola, in one of the shows' star numbers.

That's not to say that everything goes smoothly. Growing up as Simon in Clacton, Lola is used to the abuse that is heaped on trannies, primed for it by her prizefighter father. But she must butt heads with hulking factory worker Don (Daniel Stewart Sherman) in a staged boxing match, which Lola clearly wins, but throws so Don can keep his respect.

In return, Don must change his mind about someone -- that someone being Charlie. Don overhears Charlie telling his snooty bitch of a girlfriend Nikola (Celina Carvajal) that he won't convert the factory to condos that he wants to save his legacy and his friends' jobs. Don comes to the rescue and makes sure the boot order is done on time. Charlie lashes out at Lola, calling her the worst of both sexes.

No spoilers here, but the climactic Milan fashion show, sadly, delivers less punch than the one in the movie, although this one is more heartfelt.

As for Charlie, he finds a love interest in a real girl, perky, supportive Lauren. Ashford shows remarkable comic timing bordering on genius in this role as she winks and gags and drools over her newfound feelings. In the end, love and friendship triumph over adversity, and everyone sings.

The set design by David Rockwell was simple yet fitting, with a three-paneled brick fa�ade coming together to make the front of the Price and Sons shoe factory, and a rotating center platform with a top office and staircase serving as the interior of the factory, the drag club and the local pub.

Often overlooked, the lighting design in this show deserves to be singled out for particular recognition. Kenneth Posner's colored gels make the scenes pop, and his lighting cues are perfect in the club sequences.

Additional kudos go to the costume designer, Gregg Barnes, for his simplicity. Rather than concocting all manner of "industrial urban" interpretative, fanciful outfits, the factory workers wear clothes entirely appropriate for working-class England. Also Charlie's business wear is spot-on.

As for the outlandish, over-the-top outfits that Lola and the other drag queens don (you knew the drag queens would be dressed to die for, right?), even these are kept within realistic parameters of what a London drag queen would be actually able to put together. No "Priscilla" fantasy here, but still fun and inventive.

There was, however, one costume that defied belief: those boots!

In the final Milan fashion show, drag queens show off Union Jack leather boots, green-leather and silver-sequin thigh highs, orange and teal brocades, and of course, lots and lots of red. As the whole cast took the stage in boots -- even big Don -- and the audience went wild with applause.

This reviewer alone was left to wonder, where in the world did they ever find those fabulous kinky boots?