INTERVIEW: Andy Kelso puts on those ‘Kinky Boots’ one last time
Photo: From left, Andy Kelso and Alan Mingo star in Kinky Boots. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by DKC O&M with permission.
Kinky Boots, the Tony-winning musical from Cyndi Lauper, Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Mitchell, is set to leave Broadway April 7. After enjoying a multi-year run and entertaining thousands upon thousands of theatergoers, the musical extravaganza about acceptance and tolerance will finally say goodbye to the Midtown Manhattan theater community.
One of the actors who has been along for almost the entire ride is Andy Kelso, who currently plays Charlie, the character in charge of a failing shoe company. He employs the help of Lola, a local drag entertainer, to change the family business from old, tired shoes to ones with more glitter and longer heels — just the type Lola wears on stage.
Kelso’s journey didn’t begin with the Charlie role. He was actually the original Harry role back when the musical first opened in 2013.
“I first was attached because I got an appointment through my agent for an audition for Charlie for one of the readings,” Kelso said in a recent phone interview. “And I went in and auditioned for Jerry … and everything went really well. But it ended up that someone else played Charlie, but [Jerry] wanted me to be a part of it. And I ended up playing Harry. That was initially how I first became apart of the show.”
Eventually, in January of 2014, Kelso assumed the role of Charlie and can now speak of two journeys with Kinky Boots: opening the show and now spending many performances in a lead role, all the way until the final performance.
“Charlie was always a role that even from that first audition that I had, I was always, oh, I really want to play this role,” he said. “It’s just such a dream role in general. You get to do so many different things as Charlie Price, that it was awesome. It was cool because I had been a part of creating the show and had been part of the show since the beginning. Everyone was so supportive, and we were already kind of a family. I had so much support in taking over the role. It was an amazing experience.”
As Charlie, Kelso stayed with the show for two years and then left in 2016. That means he knows the process of saying goodbye to Kinky Boots; this might prepare him for April 7, which promises to be a bittersweet moment in his career.
“When you leave the show, you go through the mourning of the show leaving your life, so I’ve already been through that,” Kelso said. “This time, coming back, it’s really great for me because I get to come back and know that I’m closing the show, and I get to celebrate it. It’s such a cool thing to be able to be a part of the closing of the show when I was part of opening it. Everyone in the building had such a long notice. Everyone found out six months before our closing date, [so] everyone’s made peace with it. Of course, everyone’s going to be sad to not have Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld when you’re walking down 45th Street, and to see everyone because we’ve really become such a family, but I think everyone is just celebrating it now. I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks.”
Kelso is not the only original cast member to be closing the show. A few his company members have made the multi-year journey with him. Caroline Bowman, for example, currently plays Nicola, and she started in the ensemble.
“There’s a good handful of original company members that are still with the show, and they have been since day one,” he said.
Perhaps the staying power for a lot of these actors is because Kinky Boots has touched many hearts. The music and the message have inspired numerous audience members, many of them first encountering the story in the successful movie that served as inspiration for the show. Lola, a drag performer, faces a lot of pain in the show, from her father, from her new coworkers at the shoe factory, even from Charlie.
“This show has inspired them so much to just accept themselves and be who they want to be,” the actor said. “When you get that feedback from the audience and hear direct stories, it’s just so inspiring. It refreshes the reason why we’re doing it, and it really inspires you to give all you can every single night.”
He added: “All these feelings that are deep down that [Charlie] hasn’t quite processed come out, and he realizes that they’re really dark. He realizes how wrong they are and how hurtful they are. … I like that the show addresses those tensions and that Charlie ultimately comes out on the other side of it and works through those things. As he accepts himself, he can also accept Lola.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Kinky Boots concludes its Broadway engagement April 7 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
