(KINKY BOOTS NATIONAL TOUR and Photo by Matthew Murphy.)
By Jerome Langston
Speaking to actor J. Harrison Ghee, a North Carolina native who was in Tampa for a Kinky Boots performance at the Straz Center when I recently interviewed him by phone, reminds me of the famous Oscar Wilde quote about life imitating art. Within just the first few minutes of our conversation, it becomes apparent that Ghee was destined to occupy the role of Lola, the Cabaret and drag queen performer whose character serves as the heart of this hugely successful Broadway musical.
Kinky Boots is a proto-typical, two-act, big-hearted Broadway musical. What makes it unique is everything else. Based upon the 2005 British film of the same name, which was inspired by the true story of a shoe factory owner that was chronicled years earlier in a BBC documentary, Kinky Boots explores the fluidity of identity, and the beauty of unlikely friendships.
Charlie Price, though initially reluctant to even care, becomes desperate to save his recently deceased father’s Northampton shoe factory for men. Price eventually stumbles upon Simon, who at the time is in drag as the vivacious Lola, while in London. Lola is in need of a high-heeled boot that can actually support a man’s weight. So eventually, Charlie decides to shift his family business towards the creation of “kinky boots,” for the underserved market of men who perform in drag. Lola becomes both consultant and muse, which of course leads to one of the story’s central conflicts. It’s all played though, in a standard, light-hearted musical tone that works for a very broad, even family audience.
With its soulful pop accessible score composed by Cyndi Lauper, and an effective though earnest book by Harvey Fierstein, Kinky Boots, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, won the 2013 Tony award for Best Musical. It also won five additional Tonys, including Lauper’s win for Best Score. Officially opening on Broadway in April 2013 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, the smash musical is still currently running on the great White Way. The first US tour premiered September of last year in Las Vegas. And though many members of that original touring company have changed, it is still the first Broadway touring show of the musical that plays Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall later this month. Ghee has been with the show since its September 2014 Las Vegas debut. Originally, he was the swing and understudy for Lola, but once the original Lola departed, he re-auditioned and landed the full-time role of Lola/Simon.
It was during J. Harrison’s studies at AMDA New York when the possibilities of drag first sparked his interest, years ago. “It hits very close to home, as in…I’d like to say that Cyndi Lauper and the creative team almost had someone following my life,” he says, half-jokingly, about the similarities between his life and the character’s. “I’ve been doing drag, outside of the show, for 5 years now.”
It’s not just the “doing drag” part that mirrors the Lola /Simon storyline, but also the father-son dynamic that both Simon and Charlie struggle within the musical. In Ghee’s case, he is the youngest boy and a pastor’s kid from down south, so performing as a drag queen was certainly not what his parents would have expected from their son. Yet, following a conversation with his dad that he had before his family caught the show earlier this year, they are actually supportive of that aspect of Ghee’s artistry. “I do it for the art of it and the entertainment of it, and I have complete creative control of this character that I made,” he explains, referring not to Lola, but to his real-life drag persona.
It was during the early run of the touring musical, that fellow cast members would always tell him “you’re the real life Lola.” In Kinky Boots, Lola also operates as an artistic outlet for Simon. “Simon is struggling with just being himself and being okay with that,” says Ghee.
“It’s really an outlet for Simon to just be bold, to be himself, and to love the sparkly things of life.” Well along with the “sparkly things” comes a range of songs that allow Simon, as Lola, to express her truth to the audience. For me, this is where Kinky Boots really delivers. Though Lauper’s score is lacking in certain narrative elements, the Grammy winner clearly knows how to craft good music, with arrangements for songs like “Hold Me in Your Heart” and “Not My Father’s Son,” that are simply show-stoppers. And then there’s Mitchell’s high energy choreography that adds even more dazzle to the glitzy numbers. “It really is a fun show to sing,” enthuses Ghee. What excites the actor/singer the most about portraying Lola though, is actually the musical’s themes of self-acceptance and evolving from intolerance.
“It’s special for me to be able to tell this story, through this character and through this medium, and to affect people’s lives.”
WANT TO GO?
Kinky Boots
December 16-20
Chrysler Hall
Sevenvenues.com
