KINKY BOOTS book by Harvey Fierstein, songs by Cyndi Lauper, directed by Jerry Mitchell, with Alan Mingo Jr., Graham Scott Fleming, AJ Bridel, Daniel Williston and Vanessa Sears. Presented by Mirvish Productions at the Royal Alexandra Theatre (260 King West). Now in previews, opens Sunday (June 28) and runs through September 27, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 2 pm, some exceptions. $35-$130. 416-872-1212, mirvish.com.
A few months ago Vanessa Sears was finishing her final year at Sheridan College’s music theatre performance program. Now, burning up the stage at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, she’s one of the rare musical theatre performers to step from graduation to the big time.
Sears appears in the Mirvish production of Kinky Boots, the Tony-winning show about the unlikely relationship between Lola, a London drag performer, and Charlie, the conservative shoe factory owner in an industrial English town. Charlie’s business is drying up, and Lola suggests that the “gentleman’s shoe” factory start manufacturing more exotic footwear, the kind with high tops and very high heels.
As Nicola, Charlie’s fiancee, Sears plays a character who starts out being supportive but veers in another direction.
“She’s an ambitious, driven young woman who has dreams bigger than the town she was born in,” says the actor during a rehearsal break. “When we meet her, she’s desperate to wear an expensive pair of shoes to her wedding, and that says a lot about who she is we get a sense of who she wants to be and what she can achieve.
“When Charlie and Nicola grow apart, some audience members see her becoming the show’s antagonist, but I don’t think so. She’s not a villain but rather someone who has a vision of her future, and I respect her for that.”
Sears’s impression of Nicola fits right into the theme of Kinky Boots, the importance of embracing yourself and realizing your self-worth, no matter what others think.
“The show hits you in surprising ways,” observes the performer. “The promo material highlights drag queens and sparkle and glitter, but at one level it’s about fathers and sons. Both Charlie and Lola have to deal with parents who don’t approve of them and how that disapproval shapes their lives.
“There are some touching moments about love in a family that isn’t picture-perfect. The characters learn that relationships in a family can grow when they’re tested.”
A lot of the show’s success rides on Cyndi Lauper’s music, which Sears describes as eclectic.
“It moves from rock to pop to tango. All the characters have a characteristic sound that suits and helps define them, and Lauper manages to weave them together. I was surprised that there’s only one song for a female lead I thought there’d be more. But Alan Mingo, our Lola, pointed out that often the men sing in women’s ranges.”
Lauper will be in town for the Kinky Boots opening on Sunday, not by chance on the same day as Toronto’s Pride parade she’s one of its international grand marshals.
But as exciting as it will be to have Lauper in the audience that night, Sears is just as thrilled with memories of her last experience at Sheridan, performing in Brantwood: 1920-2020, one of the best pieces of site-specific, interactive theatre I’ve ever seen. (It recently won the NOW Audience Choice award at the Doras.)
Sears was strong in two contrasted roles. In a story set in the 1940s, she played the school’s only black student, shunned and shy her character in a 2015 tale was a kiss-my-ass rapper.
“Writer/directors Mitchell Cushman and Julie Tepperman built the show specifically for our class. They had our headshots on their walls for ages. We all had some responsibility for the creation of our roles, and it was an unforgettable experience to have invested in such an unusual piece of theatre.
“Brantwood is the kind of play that will change Canadian theatre. It’s full of power and possibility, and shows what real boundary-pushing art can do.”
Vanessa Sears on how she developed her Kinky Boots character:
Vanessa Sears on working in close proximity to the audience in Brantwood:
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
