The Heels Are Going Back On! Wayne Brady to Return to the Cast of KINKY BOOTS

Kinky Boots producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced today that Emmy Award-winner and Grammy Award nominee Wayne Brady will step back into his heels as 'Lola' in the Tony Award® -winning musical Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) beginning on Monday, March 5, 2018. He will play a strictly limited run through Friday, April 26, 2018.

Brady will be taking over for J. Harrison Ghee, who will be temporarily leaving the show for another project. Ghee will return to Kinky Boots on Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

Brady first took over the role of 'Lola' following original cast member, Tony® Award winner, Billy Porter. Ben Brantley of The New York Times said of Brady's performance: he "radiates stellar heat" and "gleams with contentment and confidence."

"To say that I'm thrilled to step back into Lola's fabulous shoes would be the understatement of the century!" Brady said. "Lola is a role of a lifetime for an actor, a true tour de force. In this current political and social climate, we need more people to see characters like Lola... unafraid to speak her mind and unabashedly true to herself. I can't wait to join Jake Shears and Kirstin Maldonado onstage with the rest of the Kinky Boots family."

Brady most recently starred as the infamous 'Aaron Burr' in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony® Award winning production of Hamilton in Chicago. He currently hosts the CBS game show "Let's Make a Deal," which has earned him six Daytime Emmy Award nominations. Brady will also appear in a recurring role in the third season of USA Network's hit series "Colony."

The winner of six 2013 Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, Kinky Boots features a Tony® Award-winning score by Cyndi Lauper, a book by Tony® Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and direction and choreography by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell. Kinky Boots tells the uplifting and heartwarming tale of Charlie Price, a young man reluctantly taking over his family's struggling shoe factory and looking for a fresh idea. Charlie meets and finds inspiration in Lola and together, they discover that it takes a good friend to make a great pair.

Kinky Boots has won every major Best Musical Award and is represented around the world with the Tony Award-winning Broadway company now in its fifth year, a London production in its third year (where it won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Musical) with a recently announced UK & Ireland Tour commencing next summer, a North American First National Tour in its fourth year, an upcoming production in Germany beginning performances later this month, a Korean production returning to Seoul for a third season this coming Spring and a Japanese production returning for a second season to Tokyo and Osaka in 2019. Other previous productions include an extended run in Toronto (winner of the Dora Award for Musical) and an award-winning Australian production which concluded in October 2017. The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Kinky Boots is available on Sony Masterworks Broadway.

The current Broadway cast of Kinky Boots includes J. Harrison Ghee (as Lola), Jake Shears (as Charlie Price), Kirstin Maldonado (as Lauren), Daniel Stewart Sherman, Caroline Bowman, Marcus Neville, Adinah Alexander, Eugene Barry-Hill, Stephen Berger, Holly Davis, Jesus Del Orden, Stephane Duret, Mia Gentile, Blair Goldberg, Natalie Joy Johnson, Jake Katzman, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Blaine Alden Krauss, Eric Leviton, Jake Odmark, John Jeffrey Martin, Julia McLellan, Michael Milkanin, Connor Mills, Christian Mullins, Fred Odgaard, Robert Pendilla, Jennifer Perry, Kyle Post, Charlie Sutton, Joey Taranto, Stephen Tewksbury.

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), Brian Usifer (Musical Direction), with Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Stephen Oremus.

Tickets for Kinky Boots ($55 - $163) are available for purchase in person at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre box office (Monday - Saturday, 10am - 8pm; Sunday, 12pm - 6 pm), online at www.ticketmaster.com. For information on group sales, contact Group Sales Box Office/Broadway.com at groups@broadway.com or 1-800-BROADWAY, ext 2.

The performance schedule for Kinky Boots is as follows: Monday at 8pm, Tuesday at 7pm, Thursday at 7pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm (see KinkyBootsTheMusical.com for variations). There is a general ticket lottery each day; lottery entries will be accepted online (lottery.kinkybootsthemusical.com) beginning at the curtain time of the previous performance up to 3.5 hours prior to curtain of the desired performance, and names will be chosen at random, for a limited number of $40 tickets. See KinkyBootsTheMusical.com for details and restrictions.

Kinky Boots is produced on Broadway 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.

B I O G R A P H I E S

Wayne Brady (Lola) Emmy award winning and Grammy nominated Wayne Brady continues to deliver powerful performances for his work on screen and on stage. Actor, singer, dancer, improviser, songwriter and television personality Wayne Brady is known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host, Brady is also known for his work as a host on CBS's "Let's Make A Deal," and this year brought in over 4 million views daily.

Brady's name quickly became synonymous with off the cuff brilliance. He went on to star and produce both a highly rated summer sketch show and Emmy winning talk show for ABC before joining forces with Dave Chappell to create the now classic "Training Day" sketch, showing audiences both sides of his comedic skill and depth as an actor.

Brady returned to his theatrical roots with a successful Broadway debut as Bill Flynn in "Chicago," and received rave reviews starring as Lola in the Tony® Award winning production of "Kinky Boots."

Wayne has also lent his vocal talents to both Disney's animated series "Sofia the First," and Nickelodeon's "Loud House."

His television credits include, guest starring on "30 Rock," "Everybody Loves Chris," "Dirt," as well as recurring on "How I Met Your Mother," and hosted "Don't' Forget the Lyrics." Brady will also appear in a recurring role in the third season of USA Network's hit series "Colony."

Photo credit Joan Marcus