When you leave a theatre performance and you’re kicking up your heels on the sidewalk with a song in your heart, you know the show was better than good.
You know it was fun! It was magical! It was opening night of “Kinky Boots” at the Little Theatre of Alexandria.
At show’s end, theatregoers buzzed in the lobby, they laughed, they were happy they saw “Kinky” with its action, songs and earlier, they enjoyed rubbing heels with choreographer, Michael Page, in his lilac four-inch spikes (he said he found them on the internet) to match his dancers and complement his ensemble.
The message of the play, based on a true story, presents sensitivities and differences among us, demonstrating the importance of flexibility for “when you change your mind, you can change your world.”
The star, Lola (Clayton Alex James) is a drag queen with sweeping arm gestures and posture in the shape of an S who needs new heels and lots of them for herself and her entourage of dancers, the Angels (Marc Barbret, David Maeng, Danny Seal, and Tyler Ward).
In a bar scene (where else?) Lola meets Charlie (Matthew Rubin), another star of the night, who has inherited his dad’s shoe factory on the brink of bankruptcy.
What better rescue for a shoe factory than making high heels for “ladies”?
That’s the idea of one factory worker Lauren (Keenan Parker) who comes up with the brainy notion to make shoes for Lola and, slowly (or maybe not-so-slowly) she develops a crush on Charlie.
But wait! Is Charlie available?
Alas, he is engaged to a somewhat prissy woman, Nicola (Sophie Page), the sweetest girl you can ever imagine until… she’s not. (Page skillfully turns her character into an unattractive, bossy partner and who needs that?)
Cooper Sved is a Charlie understudy but on Saturday night, he was “Harry,” Charlie’s friend who tells Charlie to accept things the way they are.
Not!
Meanwhile, Richard (Andrew Harasty) and Nicola have cooked up a grand plan for Charlie to sell his father’s manufacturing plant, but yo, the worker bees in the factory have got other ideas except for big, bad Don (Dino Vergura) who ridicules Lola and her dancers until they box!
They box? They box.
You see, Lola has some experience and surprises under her skirt.
Another big man on scene but as lovable as a panda bear, is the humorous Michael Blinde as George, the plant manager, whose size is no disadvantage when it comes to group love, especially when he parades in high boots wearing a sequined green top.
“Kinky” has children in it, too: Kiril French portrays young Charlie and Zuri Luis is young Lola, both bearing decent resemblances to their grown-up namesakes.
Also in the show are Josh Katz, Maria Ciarrocchi, Brian Lyons-Burke, David Reph, Carla Wheaden and featured dancers, Cara Stankewick, Karen Toth, Alexis Hooks and Maia Potok-Holmes, dance captain.
Makeup artist and hair stylist Jennifer Finn has created remarkably tall hair and makeup for the Angels. (How did Tyler Ward ever open her eyes with that truckload of mascara on her lashes?)
Their costuming by Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley is oh, la, la, la, la Lola! They flash, they shimmer in their short skirts (better to show some leg) and rise to the occasion, knocking us out with humor and entertainment while, along the way, changing a few impressions of “drag queens.”
Julie Fischer’s set of a manufacturing plant never grows tiresome despite the constant backdrop, overcome by the musical’s action and story.
A 10-member orchestra under the direction of alternating conductors Aimee Faulkner and Isabel Hernandez-Cata play backstage.
Harvey Fierstein wrote the book and Cyndi (“Girls Just Want to Have Fun”) Lauper wrote the music and lyrics for the show which ran on Broadway for six years and received 13 Tony Award nominations and won six, including Best Musical.
Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe St., Alexandria, VA 22314. All seats, reserved: $36. Sunday matinees, sold out. Thursday – Saturday nights, 8 p.m. through August 16, 2025. Box office, 703-683-0496, Main, 703-683-5778, boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com.
