PRESS RELEASE: Kinky Boots to Open PRIDE Month, June 7 –July 7, 2024

6th Street Playhouse Will Open Kinky Boots During PRIDE Month.  

The Huge-hearted Musical Hit of Unlikely Business Partners!

SANTA ROSA, CA (May 23, 2024) – Just in time for PRIDE Month, 6th Street Playhouse presents the joyful musical extravaganza, Kinky Boots, based on the 2005 film by the same name. The Tony-winner features an uplifting and hilarious book by Harvey Fierstein and a Grammy-winning score by pop star, Cyndi Lauper. It is based on a true story of a struggling British shoe factory owner named Charlie who, realizing that the demand is dying down for British-made loafers, forms an unlikely partnership with Lola and pivots to make shoes for another type of men: drag queens. Kinky Boots is directed by multiple award-winning Bay Area director, Patrick Nims (Sweeny Todd), with music direction by Aja Gianola-Norris (The Hello Girls) and choreography by, Joey Favalora (Fiddler on the Roof). The production features Noah Sternhill (Little Shop of Horrors) as Charlie Price and Jonathen Blue (Something Rotten) as Lola/Simon. Kinky Boots opens in the GK Hardt Theater on Friday, June 7, 2024.

“It’s why the word fabulous was invented! …Big Broadway in the best way! A splashy, bouncy, smart show with a heart, beltable songs and hilarious numbers.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

Photo by Eric Chazankin

Kinky Boots opens in the Price & Son Shoes factory with Mr. Price explaining to his young son, Charlie, that the most beautiful thing in the world is a shoe. Charlie isn’t sold on the idea. In another corner of Northampton, a young boy, Simon, is dancing in a pair of red, high-heeled shoes. Upon discovery, his father, Simon Sr., is not pleased.

Time moves forward and Charlie departs for London with his fiancėe, Nicola, leaving his disappointed father behind with the shoe factory. However, his father’s death brings Charlie back to the failing factory and to a fateful night when he sees a woman being attacked by thugs outside of a pub. He rushes to her defense, which she doesn’t need, and is knocked out. When he wakes up backstage at the Blue Angel Club he finds himself with Lola, who is actually a cross-dressing man and star of the show.

Charlie offers to fix Lola’s boot heel, which got broken in the fight, noting that they were cheaply made. Lola complains that they were also expensive and the heels can’t withstand her heavy use. Thus begins the unlikely partnership and the transformation, in spite of worker objections, of Price and Son’s product line – a line they’ll take all the way to the glamorous catwalks of Milan.

Kinky Boots is about being yourself, accepting yourself in order to accept others, and how changing your mind can change the world.

Director, Patrick Nims, has over 75 directing credits to his name and splits his time between Portland and the SF Bay. He most recently directed Sweeney Todd and Oliver for 6th Street Playhouse. Other recent productions include Kinky Boots, Cabaret, Tinderella (BWWORLD Best Director and Best Musical), West Side Story and Urinetown for Stumptown Stages, The Humans for Novato Theatre Company and Crimes Of The Heart for Ross Valley Players (both TBA recommended.)

6th Street Playhouse would like to acknowledge that while the Mountain Play, on Mount Tamalpais, is also doing four performances of Kinky Boots during 6th Street’s run of the show, 6th Street Playhouse6th Street Playhouse looks forward to all audiences who may want to experience both productions.

The Cast of Kinky Boots is as follows:
Charlie Price – Noah Sternhill
Young Charlie – Dylan Natelli
Lola/Simon – Jonathen Blue
Young Lola/Simon – Eden Oland
Nicola – Nicole Stanley
Lauren – Grace Kent
Don – Skyler King
Pat – Jonni Machado
Trish – Maureen O’Neill
George – Peter Downey
Angel 1 – Joseph Favalora
Angel 2 – Sam Minnifield
Angel 3 – Diego Rodriguez
Angel 4 – Harrie Schaufel
Stage Manager – Amelia Beasley
Mr. Price – Dwayne Stincelli
Simon Sr./Richard Bailey/Factory Worker – Keene Hudson
Harry/Factory Worker – Jake Druzgala

Kinky Boots, with book by Harvey Fierstein, and a score by Grammy Award-winning pop star, Cyndi Lauper, is based on the 2005 Miramax motion picture Kinky Boots,written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth. The film itself is an adaptation of a true story depicted on a 1999 episode of the BBC documentary series, “Trouble at the Top.“

The musical, Kinky Boots opened on Broadway on April 4, 2013, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where it set a new box office record. It was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards that year, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Orchestrations.

Kinky Boots is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. http://www.mtishows.com.

June 7 –July 7, 2024
Runs: Thursdays—Sundays (see website for details)
Run Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes plus a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets cost $29 – $51 and are available online at 6thStreetPlayhouse.com
or by calling the Box Office at (707) 523-4185.