The Tony Award winning Broadway show Kinky Boots opened this week at Shea's. The lead producer is a 25-year veteran in Broadway shows and a four-time Tony Award winner. As WBFO's Eileen Buckley reports, the producer says he is thrilled to bring Kinky Boots to a Buffalo audience.
"I am thrilled to be in Buffalo," said Hal Luftig, Producer of Kinky Boots. "Thrilled to bring this show here."
The show has won six Tony Awards including Best Musical. It is considered inspirational because it's based on a real-life story of a shoe factory owner struggling with his father's former business that was falling apart, but he teams with a man named Lola, a drag queen.
As both men share their personal identifies of being a man, they turn the former men's shoe factory into a fabulous stiletto style boot company featuring 'Kinky Boots' for drag queens.
"It has such a great message across the board about across the board about acceptance and excepting yourself and expecting others," said Lutfig. "It is one of my favorite shows I have ever produced."
The music score was written by pop star Cyndi Lauper. Luftig was thankful for her music expertise, but her willingness to learn how to score for Broadway.
"She had never written for the theater before," noted Luftig. "She came in and said, 'teach me'."
Lutfig said writing music for theater is much different then writing for a pop song.
WBFO News asked Lutfig the meaning behind the word kinky.
"Kinky actually means odd. There's nothing in this show that a family can't see," said Lutfig.
Kinky Boots is in it's first year of touring and just completed its second year on Broadway. Buffalo is considered one of the biggest theater towns in America and that's enticing for the producer and promoters.
"This community loves theater, loves Shea's also, but is also going to fall in love with this show," said Al Nocciolino, President and CEO of NAC Entertainment. The company works to bring the Broadway tours into upstate cities like Buffalo.
"We have to give a lot of credit to people in Western New York who support the theater," said Nocciolino.
At Tuesday's opening night, it proved to be well-received by the Buffalo audience. They reacted with plenty of laughter, cheering on the characters with great applause, ending with a standing ovation.
"So the people of Buffalo are going to get a real treat, and that's great. As a producer -- you're like a parent of a child and this city is going to fall in love with my child," said Luftig.
