The reviews are in! Hollywood Bowl's production of Kinky Boots ran July 8-10 at the Los Angeles venue with an all-star cast, including Wayne Brady as Lola, Jake Shears as Charlie, and Kelly Marie Tran as Lauren.
The cast also featured Mark Ballas as Harry, Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur as Pat, Hayley Orrantia as Nicola, Patrick Scott McDermott as Young Charlie, Walter Russell lll as Young Lola, James Olivas as Richard Bailey, Brian Cali as Mr. Price, and Terron Brooks as Simon Sr.
Read the reviews here.
Entertainment Weekly (Maureen Lee Lenker)
Los Angeles Times (Charles McNulty)
Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
Original Kinky Boots Broadway cast members Daniel Stewart Sherman and Jennifer Perry reprised their roles as Don and Trish, respectively, while Jim J. Bullock reprised the role of George, which he played as part of Kinky Boots’ first national tour.
Rounding up the cast was Ernest T. Williams, Tyler Keller, Matthew Varvar, Eric Stanton Betts, Tommy Martinez, Juan Torres-Falcón, Yurel Echezarreta and Jake Dupree as The Angels; Jon Robert Hall, Drew Seeley, and Desmond Newson as the male ensemble; and Kim Steele, Ashley Moniz, Joanne Javien, Morgan Anita Wood and Mia Gerachis as the female ensemble.
Kinky Boots follows Lola, an indefatigable drag performer, whose broken heel kickstarts an unlikely friendship with Charlie, a factory owner struggling to save his business. The musical, which won six Tony Awards, features a Tony-winning score by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Tony winner Harvey Fierstein. Inspired by a true story, Kinky Boots is the 21st annual LA Philharmonic/Hollywood Bowl-produced, fully staged Broadway musical mounted at the venue.
Billy Porter headed the original Broadway company as Lola, a production which also featured Stark Sands as Charlie. Both Porter and Sands were Tony-nominated for their performances; Porter won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, and Mitchell won his second career Tony Award for his choreography.
