Stark Sands, Billy Porter and Annaleigh Ashford to Star in Broadway-Bound Musical Kinky Boots

Casting has been annoucned for the world premiere production of Kinky Boots. The new musical by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein and Grammy winner Cyndi Lauper will have a pre-Broadway run at Chicago’s Bank of America Theatre. Leading the cast are Broadway favorites Stark Sands (Journey’s End, American Idiot) and Billy Porter (Angels in America, Smokey Joe’s Cafe), both of whom participated in the musical’s 2012 workshop. Directed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots will run in Chicago from October 2 through November 4. No timeline or theater has been announced for the Broadway transfer.

Joining Sands and Porter are Annaleigh Ashford, Celina Carvajal, Ellyn Marie Marsh, Daniel Sherman, Marcus Neville, Paul Canaan, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Kyle Taylor Parker, Kyle Post, Charlie Sutton, Joey Taranto, Andy Kelso, Tory Ross, Jen Perry, Josh Caggiano, Aaron Bantum, Adinah Alexander, Eric Anderson, Eugene Barry-Hill, Stephen Berger, Caroline Bowman, Sandra DeNise, Eric Leviton, John Jeffrey Martin, Nathan Peck, Robert Pendilla, Lucia Spina, Sebastian Hedges Thomas, Marquise Neal and Clifton Oliver.

Inspired by a true story and based on the 2005 film, Kinky Boots follows Charlie Price (Sands) as he is forced to step in and save his family’s shoe factory in Northern England after the sudden death of his father. Help comes from the unlikeliest angel, a fabulous drag performer named Lola (Porter). Together, this improbable duo not only revitalizes the nearly bankrupt business, but helps one another grow into the men their fathers always dreamed their sons would become, and transforms an entire community through the power of acceptance.

Kinky Boots will be presented by Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig and include set design by David Rockwell, costume design by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by John Shiver, hair design by Josh Marquette, make-up design by Randy Houston Mercer and musical supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Stephen Oremus.