Review: A KINKY Revolution in Richmond

"Be Yourself. Everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde

The most fun audiences can have in Richmond this week is dressed in leather and lace, and comes with a timely message. Featuring infectious music and lyrics by acclaimed 80s pop icon Cyndi Lauper, the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots runs through Sunday, June 4 at the Altria Theater in Richmond.

Kinky Boots tells the hilarious and heartfelt true story of an unlikely partnership between two polar opposites. Everyman Charlie Price (Curt Hansen) takes over the struggling family shoemaking business after his father's death, and faces the hard-times reality of losing everything. Tough-as-nails drag queen Lola (Timothy Ware) is as comfortable wearing mascara as she is in boxing gloves, and could hold the key that saves Price and Sons Shoe Factory in Northampton, England. The pair have more in common than they first realize. One thing they share-they're both victims of lofty fatherly expectations. Together, they set out to transform the Price family business with a new line of shoes targeting a niche market-Lola's Kinky Boots.

Harvey Fierstein's book, though formulaic, delivers plenty of laughs during the two-hour, high-heeled romp. A troupe of performers, many who live up to the original Broadway cast, brings Jerry Mitchell's staging and stunning choreography to the Altria Theater. David Rockwell's authentic warehouse set becomes more realistic with Kenneth Posner's lighting design. Gregg Barnes' costumes are a spectacle to behold.

In the crowd-pleasing anthem "Sex is in the Heel," the cast sings, "the heel should hit the ceiling." Lola's "Angels", a throng of drag queens in sassy dresses and stilettos, work extra hard to achieve just that in every dance number-including the show-stopping "Everybody Say Yeah," complete with rousing conveyor-belt choreography.

Hansen delivers an earnest performance and shines in the 11 o' clock "Soul of a Man." Kinky Boots is arguably Lola's show, and Timothy Ware's energetic and soul-stirring performance is a hard act to follow. But Rose Hemingway, as Lauren, manages to do just that. She commands the spotlight and the audience's full attention in the laugh-inducing "History of Wrong Guys," which most resembles Lauper's brand of pop.

An incredibly talented cast brings the six-time Tony Award-winning musical to Richmond through Sunday. Tickets are available at the Altria Theater box office.