Theater Kinky Boots Too Vanilla

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Michael GiltzFreelance writer GET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ Follow Theatre , Video , Cyndi Lauper , Broadway , Harvey Fierstein , Kinky Boots , Kinky BootsMusical , Kinky Boots Review , Musicals , Arts News01900Theater: Kinky Boots Too VanillaKINKY BOOTS ** out of ****AL HIRSCHFELD THEATRELike drag queens everywhere, Billy Porter in KinkyBoots makes the most of old jokes and thin materialby offering up an exaggerated delivery and lots ofpersonality. And like drag queens everywhere, hekeeps his dignity intact even if you can't helpnoticing the rather tatty surroundings.Kinky Boots was clearly meant to be a Full Monty-style crowd-pleaser. Ironically, the rather minor British film it's based on also had little torecommend it except for a star turn by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role of the drag queen. He's thesole reason the movie scored the modest box office it did ($8 million worldwide compared toThe Full Monty's $257 million.)The story on stage is much the same. Our bland hero Charlie (Stark Sands, much better inJourney's End a few seasons back) just doesn't have the same passion for the family shoefactory that his dad did. But when pop dies unexpectedly, Charlie feels obliged to leave hismaterialistic girlfriend/fiance and try and turn the company around before all the employeeshave to be fired. An unexpected run-in with the scenery-chewing Lola gives Charlie a light bulbmoment. She complains that women's shoes can't support the heft of a man and he spots anuntapped niche market catering to male cross-dressers who need flashy women's shoes. Itwon't be easy but they've got three weeks for Lola to become a shoe designer, Charlie to becomea boss capable of giving orders and factory workers ready to switch teams from sensible men'sshoes to kinky boots. A fashion show in Milan is their last chance to score a success or lose itall.. Like51Posted: 04/04/2013 11:52 pm SHARE THIS STORY LikeMike Dugan likes this. Submit this storyFor a musical about drag queens clashing with burly blue collar males and a factory crushed byoutsourcing, this is a tension-free show with almost no sex and only some very minor bumps inthe plot. One he-man employee is freaked out by Lola until they go mano-a-mano in the boxingring and Lola proves her mettle. The mild, affable Charlie has a late night meltdown whereinstead of urging people on ("I know you can do better work!") he suddenly lashes out that Lolaisn't a real man and practically tells one female employee, "You call that stitching, you sillycow?" Okay, he doesn't say that but you kind of wish he did just to wake the show up. Needlessto say his outburst is completely out of character and immediately regretted and everyonelearns a lesson, like Be Yourself! and Respect Others! and Glitter Is Always A Plus!Drag is so mainstream it's hard to imagine audiences being titillated by the anonymous dragqueens that back Lola up on various numbers or at the fashion show finale. Silly get-upsweren't enough to keep Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert afloat and I doubt commercially it willmake much difference here. Certainly the show is too polite to offend anyone. Ratherunintentionally, there's almost no gay content (not that the show isn't wildly supportive inprincipal) or even straight content for that matter. You would have thought at least the very fitemployee at the shoe factory smiling in the background of many scenes might have come out atsome point.What we do have is rote, by the numbers source material that has not been reinvented byHarvey Fierstein's book or Cyndi Lauper's score. The closest we get to a show-stopper isAnnaleigh Ashford, who plays Lauren, the nice girl at the factory we immediately realize ismeant for Charlie. She gets the show's most genuine laughs with her awkward crush on himand the comic number "The History Of Wrong Guys." Even here the book and the direction bydirector/choreographer Jerry Mitchell cheat her of applause. Instead of ending the numberwith a bang, they cut right into a bit of dialogue that sets up a lame punch line, muting thecheers Ashford was about to receive. Similarly, the book and music are poorly integrated whenCharlie flounders for a solution to the factory's impending demise while Lola does her stage actin a bar. Neither connects with the other; they just seem to get in each other's way. It happensagain during the drawn-out Act Two number "What Women Want," another musical numberthat stops and starts ineffectively.The show comes to a halt for two big solo turns. Charlie belts out "The Soul Of A Man," withawkward lyric included purely for the play on words of soul and sole. Lola belts out her eleveno'clock number "Hold Me In Your Heart," while performing at a nursing home in drag in thetown where she grew up. We're meant to be moved when we discover she's been singing to herfather, the man she's been estranged from. But since we don't even know he's alive much less inthe nursing home until after the number is over, the impact feels cheap. (For some reason,perhaps because Charlie's dad is dead, we kind of thought Lola's dad was in the past tense too.)Similarly, Charlie's official girlfriend is out of the picture right at the beginning of the showbefore we even get a chance to dislike her. (She's one of those romantic entanglements, aperson you're allowed to hate so the hero or heroine can overcome an obstacle to their truelove.) And did we really need to see the inner child of both Charlie and Lola get a hug from theirrespective dads at the finale?Everyone involved has done and will do better work, Fierstein included. I'm a big fan ofLauper's in particular and always felt she was a likely contender for the Grand Slam ofcreativity: to win all four major awards. She already has Grammys for her great music and anEmmy for her hilarious acting on the sitcom Mad About You. I've been waiting for her to tacklea musical for many years so it's quite a disappointment to say her first effort is not up to thebest that she can do. Precious little here has the immediate thrill of a pop number and few workas musical theater pieces, though "I'm Not My Father's Son" comes closest to a strong melody. Ididn't want a jukebox musical from her, but it's impossible not to note that her classic "TrueColors' would have worked perfectly and been a far more powerful number in the show thananything that's actually here. Is it fair to compare them to a standard like that? Well, youshould only expect the best from the best.Mitchell's choreography is routine, amounting mostly to drag queen leg splits and one attemptat innovation with performers dancing on and around a moving assembly line. It wouldn't beeasy to have our hero brandish bits of leather and make it interesting but Mitchell doesn'tsucceed. The lighting by Kenneth Posner is notably muddy and unattractive, with much of thestage in shadows even during the glitziest moments, until the finale where the inevitable brightdazzling lights are brought into play. The costumes by Gregg Barnes are the expected jokeynumbers for the drag queens but do what they can; notably they maintain a nice balancebetween silliness and the real world. They're outlandish but you can actually imagine these galswhipping them up in the real world. At least the boots are kinky and fun -- when Charlie wore ared knee-high pair during the last number, it was the first time he showed some genuinepersonality all evening long.THE THEATER SEASON 2012-2013 (on a four star scale)As You Like it (Shakespeare in the Park withLily Rabe) ****Chimichangas And Zoloft *Closer Than Ever ***Cock ** 1/2Harvey with Jim Parsons *My Children! My Africa! ***Once On This Island ***Potted Potter *Storefront Church ** 1/2Title And Deed ***Picture Incomplete (NYMF) **Flambe Dreams (NYMF) **Rio (NYMF) **The Two Month Rule (NYMF) *Trouble (NYMF) ** 1/2Stealing Time (NYMF) ** Requiem For A Lost Girl (NYMF) ** 1/2Re-Animator The Musical (NYMF) ***Baby Case (NYMF) ** 1/2How Deep Is The Ocean (NYMF) ** 1/2Central Avenue Breakdown (NYMF) ***Foreverman (NYMF) * 1/2Swing State (NYMF) * 1/2Stand Tall: A Rock Musical (NYMF) * 1/2Living With Henry (NYMF) *A Letter To Harvey Milk (NYMF) ** 1/2The Last Smoker In America **Gore Vidal's The Best Man (w new cast) ***Into The Woods at Delacorte ** 1/2Bring It On: The Musical **Bullet For Adolf *Summer Shorts Series B: Paul Rudnick, Neil LaBute, etc. **Harrison, TX ***Dark Hollow: An Appalachian "Woyzeck" (FringeNYC) * 1/2Pink Milk (FringeNYC)* 1/2Who Murdered Love (FringeNYC) no starsStorytime With Mr. Buttermen (FringeNYC) **#MormonInChief (FringeNYC) **An Interrogation Primer (FringeNYC) ***An Evening With Kirk Douglas (FringeNYC) *Sheherizade (FringeNYC) **The Great Pie Robbery (FringeNYC) ** 1/2Independents (FringeNYC) *** 1/2The Dick and The Rose (FringeNYC) **Magdalen (FringeNYC) ***Bombsheltered (FringeNYC) ** 1/2Paper Plane (FringeNYC) ** 1/2Rated M For Murder (FringeNYC) ** 1/2Mallory/Valerie (FringeNYC) * Non-Equity: The Musical! (FringeNYC) *Blanche: The Bittersweet Life Of A Prairie Dame (FringeNYC) *** 1/2City Of Shadows (FringeNYC) ***Forbidden Broadway: Alive & Kicking ***Salamander Starts Over (FringeNYC) ***Pieces (FringeNYC) *The Train Driver ***Chaplin The Musical * 1/2Detroit ** 1/2Heartless at Signature **Einstein On The Beach at BAM ****Red-Handed Otter ** 1/2Marry Me A Little **An Enemy Of The People ** 1/2The Old Man And The Old Moon *** 1/2A Chorus Line at Papermill ***Helen & Edgar ***Grace * 1/2Cyrano de Bergerac **Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? ***Disgraced **Annie ** 1/2The Heiress **Checkers ** 1/2Ivanov ***Golden Child at Signature ** 1/2Giant at the Public *** 1/2Scandalous * 1/2Forever Dusty **The Performers **The Piano Lesson at Signature *** 1/2Un Ballo In Maschera at the Met *** 1/2 (singing) * (production) so call it ** 1/2A Christmas Story: The Musical **The Sound Of Music at Papermill ***My Name Is Asher Lev *** 1/2Golden Boy ** A Civil War Christmas ** 1/2Dead Accounts **The Anarchist *Glengarry Glen Ross **Bare **The Mystery Of Edwin Drood ** 1/2The Great God Pan ** 1/2The Other Place ** 1/2Picnic * 1/2Opus No. 7 ** 1/2Deceit * 1/2Life And Times Episodes 1-4 **Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (w Scarlett Johansson) * 1/2The Jammer ***Blood Play ** 1/2Manilow On Broadway ** 1/2Women Of Will ** 1/2All In The Timing ***Isaac's Eye ***Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale Of Musical Mystery ** 1/2The Mnemonist Of Dutchess County * 1/2Much Ado About Nothing ***Really Really *Parsifal at the Met *** 1/2The Madrid * 1/2The Wild Bride at St. Ann's ** 1/2Passion at CSC *** 1/2Carousel at Lincoln Center ***The Revisionist **Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella ***Rock Of Ages * 1/2FOLLOW ARTS Sponsored Links LifeLock® Fraud ServicesLifeLock® Credit Alerts For Fraud Protect Against Identity Fraud.LifeLock.com"No Cost" Scooters?Seniors 60+ who live in New York may qualify for a free mobility scooter…SmarterSeniorLifestyles.comAnn ** 1/2Old Hats ***The Flick ***Detroit '67 ** 1/2Howling Hilda reading * (Mary Testa ***)Hit The Wall *Breakfast At Tiffany's * 1/2The Mound Builders at Signature *Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike *** 1/2Cirque Du Soleil's Totem ***The Lying Lesson * 1/2Hands On A Hardbody *Kinky Boots **Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culturepodcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features topjournalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltzat his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radioshow, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix andgain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he willbe writing a review. All productions are in New York City unless otherwise indicated. Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz Like44k GET ALERTSForm an LLC in 3 StepsForm a Limited Liability Company. Featured by CNN and Entrepreneur.www.LegalZoom.com Buy a link here Related News On Huffington Post:'Kinky Boots' Star Billy Porter On New Musical's Message, Drag Role And Broadway Journey As the star of "Kinky Boots," Billy Porter sways, struts and sashays across a Broadway stage insequined-studded gowns and 6-inch heels on a nightly...Cyndi Lauper's Musical 'Kinky Boots' Hits Broadway NEW YORK — Writing her first musical turned into a time machine for Cyndi Lauper. As the GrammyAward winner began work on the exuberant...Cyndi Lauper Slams Donald Trump Over Gay Marriage Stance, Obama Remarks Cyndi Lauper took Donald Trump to task over his controversial remarks on same-sex marriage andPresident Barack Obama in a new interview. Now promoting her... Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:Robert Bullen: Delightful Kinky Boots Kicks Up Its Heels in Pre-Broadway EngagementIf there's a single compelling reason to see Kinky Boots, a lively new musical based on a 2005 Britishcomedic film that's currently making its pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago, it's Billy Porter's bravura turn assassy drag queen Lola.David Finkle: First Nighter: Kinky Boots the Musical Is Truly Kinky -- Despite the KinksIf Kinky Boots were judged solely on the merits of its several uproarious numbers and sunspot-brightperformances, it would be accounted a runaway hit -- and many happy patrons will do just that.Greg Archer: Cyndi Lauper: Icon Opens Up About New Reality Series, Kinky Boots and MoreFans got a glimpse of Cyndi Lauper's persona when she appeared on Celebrity Apprentice a few seasonsback but in WEtv's new offering,Still So Unusual, the artist extraordinaire unveils even more. 3 people are discussing this article with 3 commentsComments are closed on this entry.Highlighted Most Recent Oldest Most Faved Christopher Haase1118 Fans Fave Share5 Apr 6:34 PMFlagI sometimes feel sorry for reviewers. You sometimes take for granted thepower of what is put before you. It's your job to be witty and nitpick thingsthat others can openly enjoy without the scrutiny. I saw Kinky Boots in itspre-Broadway trial in Chicago. I haven't seen the changes made, but I doremember a theatre full of people screaming, clapping and standing at theend of a very... Read MoreIn reply to: Christopher Haase Michael GiltzSUPER USER·149 Fans·freelance writer Fave Share15 Apr 12:51 PMARTICLE AUTHORHI Christopher, Glad you enjoyed the show. You'll be happy to know Kinky Boots gotbetter reviews from most other critics. Of course, when people go to aBroadway show, it's often a once a year or maybe once every few years oronce in a lifetime experience and naturally having spent all that money,they want to have a good time. (Tickets are expensive!) It's a rare luxuryto go see Broadway... Read More Mario Golden0 Fans Fave Share11 May 9:49 PMFlagA rather uptight review. I am a Latino immigrant gay theater artist living inNew York and a theater goer. I did not pay to see this show, and I ended upfeeling it was twice a gift. "Kinky Boots" is a simple yet deep story full of loveand goodwill. Both the book and lyrics are heartfelt and soulful and revealdeep reflection about life and what makes it possible for us come togetheras... Read More

Theater Kinky Boots Too Vanilla

📄 Theater Kinky Boots Too Vanilla

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