I saw this national tour of hit Broadway show Kinky Boots on its final performance in Rochester, New York on a Sunday evening; and the biggest surprise for me was that the mostly elderly audience reacted with the screaming enthusiasm of a younger audience at a rock concert.

Left: J. Harrison Ghee (Lola)

Probably the biggest revelation of the show itself is the remarkably original and effective score by Cyndi Lauper. I’ve liked Cyndi Lauper as a pop singer and delightful comic actress for decades, but no one seems to have realized – including Ms. Lauper – that she has enormous talent as a composer and lyricist for musical comedy. Her show-stopping song, “Not My Father’s Son,” performed by both the transgendered drag-queen Lola and the rebellious son and heir of the failing shoe-making factory, could become the anthem, not only of sexual rebels, but actually of all conflicted offspring who reject inherited expectations and pursue a path of their own. It got an ovation accompanied by grins and tears.

The plot, adapted from the charming but not especially successful British film, is both cliché and silly: the unlikely union of transvestite entertainers and bankrupt shoe-factory workers leads to the creation of the title-symbol – gaudy red over-the-knee length boots with long, scary stiletto-heels. And everyone prances around in them. Harvey Fierstein’s plot for the musical adds a lot of LGBT propaganda and mushy sentimentality, but Jerry Mitchell’s slick direction and choreography keep it clap-trapping. A breakneck celebratory fashion show on treadmills, for instance, is circus-like entertaining.   A slew of designers and technicians, headed by award-winning Broadway pros David Rockwell {scenery], Gregg Barnes [costumes], and Kenneth Posner [lighting], plus Stephen Oremus’ music supervision insure that this touring version is handsome Broadway-level entertainment.

Below: The cast of ‘Kinky Boots.’ All photos: Matthew Murphy

In the performance I saw, Mike Longo replaced Steven Booth as the character Charlie Price; Adam Halpin replaced Mike Longo as the character, Harry; and Jeff Kuhr replaced Adam Halpin as the character, Richard Bailey. J. Harrison Ghee made a truly commanding, great-looking Lola in and out of drag. No doubt, this mostly-East Coast tour will include various cast-changes. But it’s a uniformly well-cast, nifty entertainment, and apparently appeals to all sorts of audiences.

By Herbert Simpson, Contributing Writer

‘Kinky Boots’: Total Rating: **** (out of 4)

Author:   Book by: Harvey Fierstein

Music & Lyrics by: Cyndi Lauper

Based on the Miramax motion picture Kinky Boots

Written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth

Still Running: [on tour]

Theater Type: Touring productions

Director and Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell

Musical Supervisor, Arranger and Orchestrator: Stephen Oremus

Cast:

Florrie Bagel, Joe Beauregard, Damien Brett, Steven Booth, Stephen Carrasco, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Joe Coots, Amelia Cormack, Alfred Dalpino, J. Harrison Ghee, Adam Halpin, Darius Harper, Nicholas Aaron Jenkins, Crystal Kellogg, Jeffrey Kishinevskiy, Jeff Kuhr, Patty Lohr, Mike Longo, Tommy Martinez, Kenny Morris, Jennifer Noble, Anthony Picarello, Griffin Reese, Jomil Elijah Robinson, Horace V. Rogers, Ricky Schroeder, Grace Stockdale, Anne Tolpegin, Juan Torres-Falcon, Hernando Umana, Craig Waletzko, Sam Zeller.

Technical:

Scenic Designer: David Rockwell

Costume Designer: Gregg Barnes

Lighting Designer: Kenneth Posner

Sound Designer: John Shivers

Music Director: Adam Souza