If you’re Broadway bound, as a die hard shoe lover there is one must-see show this season –Kinky Boots! Yeah, you read right. Kinky Boots, the movie from a few years ago starring Golden Globe Awards nominee, British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a major buzz now playing in theaters on Broadway!

Shoeholics magazine was invited to the press presentation day and opening night. Like anyone else who had seen the movie before we were curious to see what the theater version would look like. Forget the fact that legendary singer Cindy Lauper is the music composer or that Harvey Fierstein is the playright –we simply had to see the boots! During the presentation, we had the honor of meeting the man behind the helms of making the stage costumes. The award winning costume designer, Gregg Barnes was more than happy to share some of his sketches with us prior to the opening night. He drew from the likes of the late Alexander McQueen’s tartan collection from a few years ago and iconic cartoon characters from New Yorker magazine covers for inspiration, among many other things.

Gregg spiced up the costumes a bit more with vibrant colors and sparkles, appropriate concept for theater which also helps to bring out the energy in the actors wearing them on stage. He then collaborated with New York based shoe manufacturers LaDuca and T.O. Dey to bring the colorful jaw dropping boot sketches to life while baring in mind the need for the stage dancers and actors to move easily with comfort during their performances. Like many designers, Gregg was faced with many disappointments of heel breaking during production until he was able to get it right after many prototypes. Nobody wants to see disgruntled actors live on stage as a result of tight shoes and broken heels! Gregg was persistent on getting it right. Judging from what we witnessed at yesterday’s full press preview, the result was spectacular! It’s one thing to see a colorful sketch on paper but it’s a different matter to see it live moving about right before your eyes.

The entire show was beyond what we had expected. Billy Porter’s character as Lola was a complete mirror image of Chiwetel Ejiofor right down to his voice! Stark Sands as Charlie Price had the audience near tears during his heart wrenching solo performance when he gave up on the factory. Speaking of solo performance, Billy Porter’s drag queen character brought the house down with his near resemblance of Jennifer Hudson’s groundbreaking solo performance in the movie “Dream Girls“. At one point we completely forgot Billy Porter is a man in a dress and thought he could easily play the late singer Whitney Houston in a movie biopic! Yes, the man can sing!

By the end of the show, the entire theater was on their feet in thunderous applause. If any of them had any hangups about drag queens or transvestites before seeing the show, it was long forgotten by the time they left the building. On life imitating art, vanity aside: a lot can be learned from the show, for each and everyone of us to be more open minded and respect each other unconditionally!

The show is indeed “Gone with the boots FABULOUS!” Check out the show!

Speaking on behalf of all Shoeholics who would end up seeing this show and have to leave the theater salivating over the boots. The show leaves one wanting more, especially after seeing the endless parade of couture looking boots that closed the show! Here’s a free advice for the producers: The show to consider its own line of boots for sale and we would be the first in line armed with our credit cards to scoop up every pair without bating an eyelid! Broadway shows are known to sell just about anything from their shows as souvenirs at the theaters to guests. So why not Kinky Boots? Producers, can you hear the cash register ringing and this idea being a great source of more revenue? We hope you are reading this. *Hint*

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