A joyous celebration with heart

As Riverwalk Theatre’s production of ‘Kinky Boots’ gets rolling with its opening number, “Price and Son Theme/The Most Beautiful Thing in the World,” the cast explosively celebrates the joy of shoes — men’s shoes in particular. While the number ostensibly focuses on newfound factory owner Charlie Price’s indoctrination into the family shoe business, it’s a few minutes of extraordinary human reality that introduces the power of and fear of just being yourself. 

As Young Lola, Camryn Cardwell puts on a pair of oversized red high heels. He walks awkwardly at first, struggling to find his footing. But once he does? The explosion of joy expressed in his twirls, dancing and singing is contagious and beyond heartwarming. At that moment, I literally welled up with tears.

At its heart, “Kinky Boots” is about exactly that moment: finding the freedom and joy of living as your authentic self. Harvey Fierstein’s book and Cyndi Lauper’s music fuel this exploration as the characters fight not only to accept themselves but each other.

Jordan Taylor as Lola, a drag queen from London, creates a nuanced, subtle, emotional performance with inner strength and a powerful presence. His character’s journey, started by Cardwell in the first number, is the true emotional anchor of this production. At his side is Charlie Price, played by Zach Husak, the sudden owner of the Price & Son shoe factory. 

As written, the show should follow Price’s story, but Husak misses the mark at key moments where he could have built up the character’s emotional commitment for stand-up-and-cheer vocal performances. He’s in no way terrible; he’s just lacking the depth to truly drive his own discoveries, frustrations and celebrations.

Backing up Lola is a quartet of drag queens known as the Angels, portrayed by Drew Doman, Dayfran Comacho, Drew Birchmeier and Ben English. When they’re on stage, the four men ooze drag-queen mysticism, drawing audiences in.

Every story needs a villain. Dale Wayne Williams takes on this role as Don, with an anchored-in-reality toxic masculinity that leaves you wondering how he’s able to shift moods so expertly.

Friday night (Feb. 3), the city was being pelted by a major snowstorm, but inside the theater, a cast of truly dedicated community members unfolded a tale of self-acceptance that reminds us all we’re at our best when we work together. 

While it’s definitely a show with heart and pizazz, it had a few stumbles. The scene changes were often clunky and unfortunately slow. Had director Kelly Stuible-Clark added bridge music to cover the changes, the delays wouldn’t have been noticeable. There were also a few mic issues, leaving us wanting a bit more level from Lola in her opening performance and from Young Charlie, played by Miles McEvoy. McEvoy’s mic issues were so distracting that his enthusiastic, childlike exuberance while discovering the family business was turned into a pantomime. 

Even with those minor issues, the show is a heartwarming tale that will spark joy, move you to tears and, importantly, remind you we are best when we let go and just be.