Kinky Boots are Made for Dancing

Saturday evening I attended a performance of Kinky Boots in Cleveland Playhouse Square Connor Palace theater. I attended with my friends Duane and Tim, their tickets having been Christmas gifts from me.

The show was everything you want from a Broadway musical. Engaging story? Check. Lavish costumes? Check. Choreographed song and dance numbers? Check. Terrific acting? Check.

Kinky Boots is sometimes called "the Cindy Lauper musical" with a book by Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein. The show tells the story of erstwhile, second-generation shoe manufacturer Charlie Price trying to save his freshly inherited factory and by extension, the factory townies it employs. With help from a drag queen named Lola, the factory retools to make specialty boots for men in drag, inspiring gruff factory workers to rethink their homophobic mindsets.

I cannot recommend this musical enough. If you have a chance, see it.

My companions and I were eating dinner at the Subway in Playhouse Square, having been turned away from all the sit-down restaurants for lack of reservation (seriously, this is still a problem?) when all three of us started checking out a new patron who ordered a sandwich and departed. Unbeknownst to us, the patron was a cast member. Yummy.

More than anything else, I relished the opportunity to return to Playhouse Square to experience live theater. It brought me joy.