Review: KINKY BOOTS Rocks its Regional Premiere at The Lamp Theatre

I like to modulate the way I write about shows on here; I try to follow Roger Ebert's advice to take a piece for what it's trying to be as opposed to what the ideal would be. This means I go into shows at small semi-professional theatres, or even occasionally a fully volunteer community theatre, with a different set of expectations and aesthetic goals than a huge AAA venue like Pittsburgh CLO. This is particularly relevant because after Pittsburgh CLO's production of Kinky Boots last summer, the show's regional premiere for Westmoreland County, and for small theatres in the Pittsburgh area in general, just opened at the Lamp Theatre in Irwin. At the time I'm writing this, it would appear that Kinky Boots has either completely sold out, or is about to completely sell out, its two-week run at the Lamp in Irwin. To say this is a rarity for local theatre in Westmoreland County, or even in Pittsburgh at large, is an understatement. I can't remember the last time I saw it happen, including national tour dates. When all is said and done, I think this smaller, grittier, scrappier production staged by Split Stage Productions more than holds its own against the glitzy Broadway replica staging.

Gone are the giant flown-in set pieces, neon signs and sequined curtains of the original; all we have in director Laura Wurzell's staging is a metal staircase, a four-sided block and some desks. It's very working class, totally befitting the world of Price and Sons. Even the band is stripped down: instead of the thirteen-piece orchestration plus pre-recorded loops and tracks of the original, we get a six-piece live combo. Where, you may ask, is the budget then? Where it counts the most: in the boots, and in the queens. Sharon Wiant's costume design, featuring dozens of changes for drag queen Lola and an astounding display of boots in the grand finale, looks just as good as anything in the Broadway version. And as for the queens- I'm sorry, the show calls them the "angels?" In a move I hope all local productions will follow, Split Stage has opted to cast local active drag queens from Pittsburgh's drag scene, rather than simply dressing chorus boys in wigs and heels.

Let's start there. The crowd at opening night was going nuts for the entrance of the four angels, as these are recognized local performers doing what they do best. Every flick of a fan and every death-drop was executed not necessarily with Broadway precision, but with the idiosyncracies of character that queens thrive on. Chi Chi deVivre, Jonathan Parker, Dixie Surewood and Christopher Watkins should be extremely proud of their foray into musical theatre; here's hoping they've had a great time AND earned some new fans who will follow them into their actual drag events.

As the queen of queens, the cocoa butter bitch herself, Lola, local theatre icon Jason Shavers makes a rare return to Westmoreland County. Shavers has been seen as a lead and a swing on most of the major stages of Pittsburgh in the last few years, so seeing him return to this area (he played Frank N. Furter and Shrek's pal Donkey out here before the pandemic) was a delight. Obviously, Pittsburgh's own living legend Billy Porter left huge shoes to fill in that role, and Shavers isn't a beltress with Porter's dizzying vocal range. But Shavers has one thing Porter rarely has: Shavers is funny, and vulnerable, and warm, and feels like a genuine human being at all times onstage. When Lola (sometimes Simon; Harvey Feirstein's libretto makes the character genuinely enigmatic in terms of gender identity and sexuality) winks to the audience, we're in the palm of Shaver's hand; when Simon confronts childhood traumas and lets his guard down, our heart breaks with him.

Kinky Boots straddles two worlds, and the working-class shoemakers are just as entertaining as the drag queens. Gabe DeRose makes a winning hero as Charlie, with his soulful singing embodying the nebbishy character's gradual desire to break out of his shell and his father's shadow. Claire Ivy Stoller, a longtime Split Stage associate, repeatedly steals the show as unlucky-in-love Lauren. Her rendition of "History of Wrong Guys," in which she throws herself frantically across the stage in a dizzying mix of physical comedy and musical performance, is worth the ticket price alone. Josh Reardon has the trickest role as Don, embodying both the latent sexism and queerphobia of working-class Britain and the individual's capacity to change when exposed to new ideas. Reardon's portrayal may appear one-note through the majority of the show, but don't be fooled: this is just so the icy bloke's thaw at the climax feels more rewarding. (As someone who felt like David Aron Damane's Don at CLO was too likable, too fast, this feels like a Goldilocks moment.)

I'm not going to say this was a perfect production, or that Kinky Boots is a perfect show. But with the current political fervor around banning or criminalizing drag, a show like this, getting the packed houses and standing ovations it has been receiving, feels like a peacemaking moment and a cultural step forward. The audience was demographically diverse: wine moms, gay couples, high school students, senior citizens. It was ethnically diverse (easily the most black people I have ever seen in Irwin at a single time). And most of all, it was JOYFUL. There's no way everyone in that room had the same sociopolitial leanings. But for two and a half hours, they laughed and cried and cheered and hooted and clapped together. I hope somebody went in with a preconceived notion that they didn't leave with, because like Cyndi Lauper wrote for the show's finale, "you change the world when you change your mind."

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