‘Kinky Boots’ kicks up a happy storm
When Cindy Lauper, (music and lyrics) and Harvey Fierstein (book) started to create Kinky Boots they never imagined that they would walk away with six Tony Awards, making Lauper the first woman to win a solo Tony for best score.Kinky Boots is one of those feel-good shows that keeps you smiling throughout the performance. It sends a well-worn preachy message “to accept everyone for what they are,” and the show makes it a fun lesson because of the music, vigorous cast and wild choreography.The play is based on a true story and movie about a failing men’s shoe factory in a town near London. Charlie (a charming Adam Kaplan) leaves his father’s business to work in London, only to return to sell the business when his father passes away. He finds, of course, that the workers depend on their jobs. He accidently meets Lola (an amazing J. Harrison Ghee), a bright, wild in-control drag queen who needs boots with heels that will support him/her and his cast in his show. The story goes on to acceptance and unacceptance of the situation, of the workers and people in the business.The show moves at a break-neck pace with chorography by director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell and wild, eye-catching costumes by Gregg Barnes. The dexterous number that has everyone leaping from one moving assembly line machine to another was a unique, clever piece of business.Lola’s act at her club consists of six dancing drag queens that make the best looking women on the planet look drab.For an evening of just plain well-done fun, laughs and a life lesson Kinky Boots is extraordinary.Kinky Boots Where: Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor Street, San FranciscoRunning Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes with one 15-minute intermissionPerformances Through May 22For tickets and information call 888-746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com.
Fed up with street racing; Eigleberry St. project update
I sit here finally fed up with the street racing, which goes on here on a somewhat regular basis. It begins promptly at 9:30 p.m. and lasts approximately 15 minutes each night and some nights residents who live up here are treated to late night racing on the roundabout somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 p.m. or later. What prompted my contacting Red Phone is the death recently in San Jose by a senseless game of the same variety. Young males fueled by too much testosterone who feel it necessary to take their frustrations out by engaging in this risky behavior. Did you not learn a lesson from the two idiots who decided their pleasure was more important than the young girl's life and who now sit in Santa Clara County jail? Apparently not or you wouldn't be driving like a maniac as I sit here writing this now.
