By Samuel L. Leiter . . .
Theater returned to town last year after its extended postponement stemming from the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean things were back to normal. Except for a tiny fraction of examples, attendance was down, often seriously, and performances frequently were either temporarily canceled because of company health issues, or they went on with understudies in leading roles. Reviewers were often emailed or called by press reps informing them of such situations in case they wished to cancel and attend when the original cast was intact.
There probably has never been a period of New York theater so rife with understudy performances, a phenomenon allowing unsung talents to get their all-too-rare moments in the spotlight. Thus, I wasn’t unduly surprised to get a call on Sunday that Callum Francis, who plays the drag queen, Lola (real name Simon), in the current revival of Kinky Boots (Best Musical Tony, 2013), would be out—reasons undisclosed—for that day’s matinee. For scheduling reasons, I agreed to see his understudy rather than wait for the British-born Mr. Francis—who has made something of a career out of the role—to return to the stage.
Mr. Callum’s understudy was Ernest Terrelle Williams, a Bronx native, listed in the program as a “swing,” and serving as one of three potential Lolas; the other two usually play Angels, Lola’s entourage of half a dozen fellow drag queens. I’m always bowled over by the ability of such performers—especially in musicals—to step in on short notice and be letter perfect, replicating precisely every intonation, facial expression, gesture, and dance step of the actors they’re covering.
Mr. Williams is not the perfect Lola. He sings and dances well enough, but he’s physically slighter than others who’ve played the role, which is particularly notable when he dresses in mufti or boxes, shirt off, with his hulking nemesis, Don (Sean Steele). Often, for all his technical expertise, his performance seemed rote, lacking the inner authenticity that would have made it memorable. Just as significantly, his diction is often slurry and many of his rapidly spoken lines are too mushy to understand. Still, he deserved the warm applause he received from the disappointingly meager audience at Stage 42.
Perhaps it’s too soon for Kinky Boots to draw a larger crowd, having opened on Broadway in 2013, in a production that rocketed Billy Porter to fame as Lola—it closed only a little more than three years ago. It’s essentially the same as its hit original, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, who brings back his glitzy, upbeat staging. Stage 42 is technically Off-Broadway, but even though its 499 seats are one less than would qualify it as Broadway, its proportions are close to Broadway levels. Kinky Boots has never been a favorite of mine, but it’s definitely a crowd pleaser (my often skeptical daughter loved it), and this is a quality production. It was deeply puzzling, therefore, to see that perhaps half the seats were empty.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Kinky Boots is based on a 2005 British film that is itself very, very loosely based on a true story. With a book by Harvey Fierstein, and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, it’s about Charlie Price (Christian Douglas), a young man who, when his dad (Ryan Halsaver) dies, inherits his family’s stodgy shoe manufacturing company in Northampton. Charlie finds himself giving up his real estate aspirations to try to save the business from failure. Things turn around after he establishes a connection to Lola, a flamboyant cabaret drag performer, who inspires Charlie to create a line of spectacularly flashy, thigh-high, drag queen boots, which the antipathetic Lola is enlisted to design.
Lola wins the hearts of the factory workers, including the homophobic Don; Charley switches his affections from his glamorous, self-involved girlfriend Nicola (Brianna Stoute) to the adorable, self-effacing worker Lauren (Danielle Hope); Charlie and Lola find a common bond through how they relate to their dads; we learn to accept people for what they are; and insights are provided about what it means to be a man.
Too often, though, the show wears its heart on its sleeve, leading to conflicts and themes that are inorganic, even clichéd. A few harmless changes from the original have been introduced, such as the elimination of the material showing Charlie and Lola as kids, and the adding of a line in which the current concern with personal pronouns is lightly satirized.
Ms. Lauper’s pop-rock score—which here makes considerable use of a synthesizer—is persistently lively, with a minimum of quiet ballads, and several impressive rock ‘em, sock ‘em numbers staged with creative ingenuity and hand-clapping excitement. “Everybody Say Yeah,” the standout, makes terrific use of a conveyor belt; “In This Corner,” presents a slow-mo “fisticuffs” contest between Don and Lola; and the rousingly joyous finale, “Raise You Up/Just Be,” brings it all home.
There’s little to complain about regarding the ensemble, including the splashily flashy Angels (Nick Drake, Ian Gallagher Fitzgerald, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Marty Lauter, Ricky Schroeder and Tarion Strong); Mr. Douglas’s attractive, aggressively ambitious Charlie, who sings his heart out in “The Soul of a Man” and even gets to wear those iconic kinky boots; Ms. Hope’s Lauren, who has some of the same charismatic, comedic charm that helped Annaleigh Ashford garner a Tony nomination for the role; and Mr. Steele’s initially hostile leatherworker, Don, who brings heft and humor to the part.
Sets, costumes, and lights are by the original Broadway team, scenic designer David Rockwell recreating, with a bit less detail, his factory interior, fronted by a scrim showing the building’s exterior; Gregg Barnes repeating his mix of workers’ clothes and drag queen ostentation; and Kenneth Posner again splashing it all with colorful illumination.
Still, Kinky Boots is a big show with a heavy nut. Unless the audience when I attended was an anomaly, there’ll soon be more than drag queens getting the boot.
Kinky Boots. Open run at Stage 42 (422 West 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues). www.kinkybootsthemusical.com
Photos: Matthew Murphy
