PicksInSix Review: Kinky Boots
Paramount’s “Kinky Boots” — Acceptance in Red
Paramount Theatre’s smashing revival of “Kinky Boots”, an exuberant, super-charged production of the Tony Award-winning musical that had its pre-Broadway debut in Chicago, electrified the sold-out opening night audience on Friday night. It was the long-awaited return to live performances in the largest and most ambitious musical in the region to date.
Written by Harvey Fierstein with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and based on the 2005 British film, “Kinky Boots” is set in the once-proud and elite Price and Son shoe company factory that has fallen on hard times. When elder Price (Neil Friedman) dies, son Charlie (an engaging Devin DeSantis) is faced with firing everyone and closing the factory down or reluctantly postponing his move to London and wedding to Nicola (Emilie Lynn) to consider making a stand to pivot the stuffy, family legacy into something new and profitable.
Enter the ebullient Lola (a showstopping performance by Michael Wordly) and the Angels who literally burst in and turn Charlie’s world upside down and catapult the business on a new and colorfully red trajectory focusing on a “completely underserved niche market” of boots for drag queens. When Lola gets a toehold in the factory as product designer, worlds collide and director Trent Stork’s vibrant and uplifting production vaults to another crimson level altogether: one of conflict, passion, reconciliation and love.
Price’s shoe factory employs the working-class characters of Northampton who face the reality that this once vibrant business is on the verge of collapse. Charlie has the loyal and love-smitten Lauren (done up beautifully by Sara Reinecke), his father’s longtime manager George (Mark David Kaplan) and several true believers among a small pact of workers led by the ruffian Don (Mark Lancaster) who challenges Lola’s very existence. The contrast between the down-to-earth workers and Lola’s entourage provide the fodder for the show’s high-impact numbers most notably “Everybody Say Yeah” and “Raise You Up/Just Be.”
Acceptance is at the heart of the story. Lola, with her Angels—Terrell Armstrong, Anthony Avino, Matthew Bettencourt, Christopher John Kelley, Anthony Sullivan Jr. and J. Tyler Whitmer—and the ensemble execute the choreography of Isaiah Silva-Chandley and Michael George with precision. The Kevin Depinet|Christopher Rhoton set framed with dozens of individually boxed shoes, Joe Burke stunning projections and gorgeous lighting by Greg Hofmann provide a glitzy atmosphere for the staggeringly sumptuous Ryan Park costumes. Kory Danielson and the Paramount Orchestra are in tip-top form.
“Kinky Boots” is a show that has come of age in the expert hands of Stork and his production team. The relationship between Charlie and Lola challenges us to understand our prejudices, to be more accepting of others and to realize that the person we become is the sum of those around us, our families, friends and coworkers. There are no better examples than the poignant “Not My Father’s Son” and the capstone ballad “Hold Me In Your Heart” two standouts in Wordly’s stellar performance that we will be talking about for a long time.
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
PARAMOUNT THEATRE
Presents
Kinky Boots
through October 17, 2021
23 East Galena Boulevard
Aurora, IL 60506
(630) 896–6666
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