Interview: Josh Tolle 'takes what he got' in KINKY BOOTS

Not every actor on tour can say that they are fortunate enough to wake up each morning and go to sleep each night in their own bed. For Josh Tolle, however, the luxury of his home just north of Pittsburgh has been a welcomed rest, if only for one tour stop.

Mr. Tolle is currently on tour with Kinky Boots, the 2013 Tony Award-winning best musical. Before the cast spends almost a month overseas in Japan, the tour has stopped in Pittsburgh at the Benedum Center, a 2,800-seat theatre in the heart of Pittsburgh's effervescent Cultural District. Though many in the cast may be unfamiliar with the Pittsburgh theatre, Mr. Tolle has sung on the Benedum stage before.

"This is definitely my dressing room from when I was a ten-year old," Mr. Tolle says, reminiscing his time in Carmen and La bohème with the Pittsburgh Opera.

But much has changed for him, from then a countertenor opera singer to now a pop rock musical theatre actor. Like many actors, Mr. Tolle found his passion for musicals in high school, memorably playing opposite his best friend in Pippin and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

As Mr. Tolle nears his 300th performance in the cast, he can't help but take his own advice that he sings nightly as Harry in the song "Take What You Got."

"[The song] a good turn of phrase for any struggling actor," he says "There's always opportunity in front of you to create, to make connections, or to make art in some way."

That is exactly the message behind the Charlie and Lola partnership in Kinky Boots. When Charlie inherits a doomed shoe factory, he trusts Lola's intuition to create a new kind of fabulous shoe with the material he already had.

"My favorite part of the show is to go out and dance in those beautiful shoes," Mr. Tolle says, though sometimes the custom made shoe can be like most heels: uncomfortable.

As a show about drag queens, Kinky Boots may surprise many audience members more than they think, Mr. Tolle says. According to him, audience members are shocked when they begin crying in the second act, moved by comedy and tragedy alike.

The message of Kinky Boots can be taken from the runway to the sidewalks, according to Mr. Tolle. He hopes that his work and the work of the cast can continues to raise audiences up, standing tall in the face of bullies and preconceived notions of our socially constructed view of acceptable dress.

"The next time [the audience] see[s] a young boy strutting to the club in heels, they [won't] think fearfully, but they immediately associate that with, 'Oh! That's like Lola,'" Mr. Tolle says with chills running up his arms.

To post a comment, you must register and login.