KINKY BOOTS National Tour, Featuring Tony Winner Billy Porter, Begins Next Week at Benedum Center

? 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 Benedum Center, August 4-9 for an exclusive engagement as part of Pittsburgh CLO's 2015 Summer Season.

Pittsburgh CLO's involvement in KINKY BOOTS on Broadway was instrumental in bringing this hit home to Pittsburgh this summer. In developing new works and co-producing new musicals Pittsburgh CLO ensures that our loyal local audiences are among the first to see Broadway's most sought-after productions. In addition, this engagement will star Pittsburgh's own Billy Porter, who is stepping out of his Tony Award-winning role on Broadway - for one week only - to play Lola before his hometown audience. Billy returns to Pittsburgh CLO after getting his start as a CLO Mini Star, before graduating from CAPA, Carnegie Mellon University and appearing in Pittsburgh CLO productions, most recently Dreamgirls in 2004.

Directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, KINKY BOOTS is represented around the world with the Broadway company now in its third year, a North American First National Tour that launched in September 2014, a Toronto production that opened in June 2015, a London production opening in September 2015 and a Melbourne production opening in October 2016. A Korean production of KINKY BOOTS ran from December 2014-February 2015. The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of KINKY BOOTS is available on Sony Masterworks 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.

Inspired by true events, KINKY BOOTS takes you from a gentlemen's shoe factory in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father's expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the factory's future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos.

Billy Porter plays the role of Lola. Broadway: Kinky Boots (2013 Tony Award, Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Award Winner), Miss Saigon, Five Guys..., Grease, Smokey Joe's..., Dreamgirls. Off-Broadway/Regional: Angels in America, Merchant of Venice, Radiant Baby, Birdie Blue, Songs for a New World. Ghetto Superstar (One-Man Show), Topdog/Underdog, King Lear, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler. Film/TV: "The Broken Hearts Club," "Shake Rattle & Roll," "Noel," "Law & Order," "The Big C." Recording: "Untitled," "At the Corner of Broadway & Soul."

Steven Booth (Avenue Q, Glory Days, Dogfight) stars as shoe factory owner Charlie Price. Porter and Booth are 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.

Rounding out the ensemble are Florrie Bagel, Joe Beauregard, Damien Brett, Stephen Carrasco, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Amelia Cormack, J. Harrison Ghee, Adam Halpin, Darius Harper, Nicholas Aaron Jenkins, Jeff Kuhr, Patty Lohr, Mike Longo, Tommy Martinez, Maggie McDowell, Jennifer Noble, Anthony Picarello, Griffin Reese, Jomil Elijah Robinson, Horace V. Rogers, Ricky Schroeder, Nick Sullivan, Anne Tolpegin, Juan Torres-Falcon, Hernando Umana and Sam Zeller.

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), Adam Souza (Musical Direction), with Musical Supervision and 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.

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