Smash-Hit Musical KINKY BOOTS Kicks Off National Tour at The Smith Center in Las Vegas Tonight

Kinky Boots, the smash-hit musical that brings together four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein (Book) and Grammy Award-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper (Tony Award-winner for Best Score for Kinky Boots), opens at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, tonight, September 4 and runs through the 14th. The 11-day run marks the launch of the musical's national tour. A hit on Broadway, the highly popular show has created much anticipation for a touring production. Kinky Boots will be the first Broadway show to launch a national tour in Las Vegas, which is a dazzling fit.

Tickets for Kinky Boots begin at $39 and can be purchased at The Smith Center Box Office, located at 361 Symphony Park Avenue, by phone at 702-749-2000 or 808-326-6868 (TTY) and online at www.TheSmithCenter.com. For preferred seating and special rates for groups of 10 or more, contact 702-749-2348.

Directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots opened on Broadway April 4, 2013 and continues to play to standing-room-only crowds nightly. The show, which has broken all box office records at the Hirschfeld Theatre, recouped its costs in October 2013, after just 30 weeks on Broadway.

Kinky Boots took home six 2013 Tony Awards, the most of any show in the season, including Best Musical, Best Score (Cyndi Lauper), Best Choreography (Jerry Mitchell), Best Orchestrations (Stephen Oremus) and Best Sound Design (John Shivers). The show also received the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Broadway.com Awards for Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album, along with many other accolades.

In Kinky Boots, Charlie Price has reluctantly inherited his father's shoe factory, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Trying to live up to his father's legacy and save his family business, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola. A fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos, Lola turns out to be the one person who can help Charlie become the man he's meant to be. As they work to turn the factory around, this unlikely pair finds that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible... and discovers that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your whole world.

The National Tour cast features: Kyle Taylor Parker (Kinky Boots, In the Heights national tour), one of the Angels in the original Broadway company, will strut his stuff as Lola - something he has done to great acclaim on several occasions in New York as the Lola understudy. Steven Booth (Avenue Q, Glory Days, Dogfight) will star as shoe factory owner Charlie Price. Parker and Booth will be joined by Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Lysistrata Jones) as Lauren, Joe Coots (TV's "Inside Amy Schumer," Full Monty national tour) as Don, Craig Waletzko (Guys & Dolls, Young Frankenstein) as George and Grace Stockdale in her touring debut as Nicola.

Other casting includes Darius Harper, Ricky Schroeder, Juan Torres-Falcon, Hernando Umana, Damien Brett, Stephen Carrasco, Lauren Chapman, Amelia Cormack, J. Harrison Ghee, Blair Goldberg, Crystal Kellogg, Ross Lekites, Patty Lohr, Mike Longo, David McDonald, Bonnie Milligan, Horace V. Rogers, Anne Tolpegin and Sam Zeller. Additional casting will be announced shortly.

The design team for Kinky Boots includes Tony Award nominee David Rockwell (Scenic Design), Tony Award-winner Gregg Barnes (Costume Design), Tony Award-winner Kenneth Posner (Lighting Design), Tony Award-winner John Shivers (Sound Design), Josh Marquette (Hair Design), Randy Houston Mercer (Make-up Design), Telsey + Company, Justin Huff, CSA(Casting), with Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Stephen Oremus.

Kinky Boots is produced on Broadway and on tour by Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig, James L. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Independent Presenters Network, CJ E&M, Jayne Baron Sherman, Just for Laughs Theatricals/Judith Ann Abrams, Yasuhiro Kawana, Jane Bergere, Allan S. Gordon & Adam S. Gordon, Ken Davenport, Hunter Arnold, Lucy and Phil Suarez, Bryan Bantry, Ron Fierstein and Dorsey Regal, Jim Kierstead/Gregory Rae, BB Group/Christina Papagjika, Michael DeSantis/Patrick Baugh, Brian Smith/Tom and Connie Walsh, Warren Trepp and Jujamcyn Theaters.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride