Past glamour and high-energy songs, ‘Kinky Boots’ is about heart, connection

Actor Omari Collins only has 16 posts on his Instagram account. The very first one, from April 10, 2016, shows a picture of a “Kinky Boots” playbill. The caption exclaims about finally seeing the show with his sister.

Little did Collins know then that most of his Instagram posts would be about “Kinky Boots,” as he’s now touring the country with the show, starring as Lola, a drag performer. This tour marks the seventh time Collins, who also performs drag as Scarlett D. Von’Du, has been involved with a production of “Kinky Boots.”

Collins’ first step, if you will, into the world of “Kinky Boots” was via the Broadway original cast album, which was released in 2013.

“I literally fell in love with the cast album,” he said. “It was on repeat.”

About five years later, the “Kinky Boots” team held auditions for a national tour. Collins auditioned but wasn’t cast. The next year, the show was set to be produced on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Collins auditioned for that production and was cast as an angel, one of Lola’s dancers, and understudied Lola.

When that contract ended and the next one came around, Collins auditioned again, this time booking the role of Lola fulltime. He’s been Lola ever since.

“I find that I learned something new with every single company of ‘Kinky Boots’ that I join,” he said. “I learn something so new about myself, about the character, about the show itself, and that’s why I keep coming back. Seven times is a long time to be doing something, but it keeps bringing me back because it always teaches me something new, and the day that I stop learning is the day I’ll be done.”

“Kinky Boots” runs for two performances, Tuesday and Wednesday, at the First Interstate Center for the Arts.

In the musical, audiences meet Charlie Price (Noah Silverman), who is meant to carry on his family’s legacy at Price and Son, a shoe manufacturing company. But instead of taking over the family business, Price is more interested in moving to London to become a real estate agent with his fiancée Nicola (Emma Dean).

Price and Nicola make it to London, but shortly after their arrival, Price’s father (Dominic Pagliaro) dies and he must return home, where he discovers that the shoe company is nearly bankrupt. The factory, it turns out, is making fine men’s shoes, but the shoes are neither stylish nor particularly affordable.

Price decides to save the factory, and his father’s legacy, but the longtime employees are skeptical.

Returning to London, Price asks fellow shoe salesman Harry (Blake Du Bois) for advice. Leaving that meeting, he sees a woman being harassed by two drunk men. Price intervenes and is knocked unconscious, waking up in a nightclub where he learns the woman he saved is the headlining drag queen performer Lola (Collins).

While in her dressing room, Price notices the high-heeled boots Lola and her backup troupe, the Angels, are wearing aren’t meant to hold a man’s weight, but Lola tells him that’s just a part of drag.

Price returns to the factory, where he has to layoff the employees. One employee, Lauren (Sophia Gunter), tells Price he must enter an “underserved niche market,” which gives Price the idea to bring Lola to the factory where they can design a women’s boot that men will be comfortable wearing.

Things start off a little rocky when Lola doesn’t like Price’s design, but she eventually gets a better design into production with the help of factory manager George (John Anker Bow). Price wants Lola to stay and help with a footwear show in Milan, but she isn’t sure she should, especially after receiving snide remarks from foreman Don (Jason Daniel Chacon).

The situation is made even worse when Nicola and her boss Richard Bailey (Kyle Williamson) arrive with plans that Price’s father agreed to before his passing to convert the factory into condominiums.

“Kinky Boots” also stars Carlyn Barenholtz, Connor Buonaccorsi, Brianna Clark, Dargan Cole, Felipe Cristancho-Rodriguez, Jonathan Blake Flemings, Peyton Gaida, Jayna Glynn, Billy Goldstein, Brandin Jay, Robert Miller, Val Moranto, Thomas Ed Purvis, Blaise Rossmann and Natalie Lilavois Yusty.

The musical is based on a 2005 film of the same name, written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, which was based on a true story. “Kinky Boots” features music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein.

Collins said Lauper’s soundtrack makes “Kinky Boots” high energy from start to finish. It’s not your typical musical, he said, thanks to the pop and rock tunes the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Time After Time” and “True Colors” singer wrote for the show.

“That’s why it’s beloved so much,” he said. “It has a tune that we all know even though the music is new and fresh and its own thing, but it’s familiar to us. It’s Cyndi Lauper, and who doesn’t love Cyndi Lauper?”

The musical’s book too is special, written by Fierstein, who also penned “Torch Song Trilogy,” “La Cage aux Folles” and “Newsies,” among other plays and musicals. Every word, Collins said, means something, is intentional and should be treated with care by the actors.

“In the call for this role, everything Lola speaks is with exclamation points after,” he said “That is how big and grand that this role was written. I think no other person could have taken that on other than Harvey Fierstein. Truly, he’s an icon.”

When it comes to the larger-than-life character of Lola, Collins said he can handle the vocals and acting but he’d be nothing without the makeup and clothing, designed by Gregg Barnes. The sparkles and textiles have been thought out to a T, he said, and add an extra element to his Lola.

Looking past the glamour of the show and the high-energy musical numbers, Collins said “Kinky Boots” is ultimately about human connection and making audiences realize that we’re more alike than we are different.

The show has a huge heart, he said, and stresses that we can look past what makes us different and dig into the things that make us alike and make us human.

“I feel like that resonates with everybody from 10 to 92,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. When we’re all sitting in this theater having a collective experience, we are all subject to feeling. We’re all subject to the same joy and entertainment.”