Porter is stepping out of his Tony Award-winning role on Broadway for one week only to play Lola before his hometown audience. Porter was most recently seen at the Pittsburgh CLO in Dreamgirls in 2004. Porter got his start as a CLO Mini Star, before graduating from CAPA, Carnegie Mellon University.
Performing the role of Lola in his hometown is more than just a homecoming for Porter, in some ways its a homecoming-out. His recent Off-Broadway play, While I Yet Live, which was was based on his own experiences, focused on a young, gay, black man and the women who love him — sometimes conditionally.
"She lives out loud, without apology," Porter told Playbill.com when he created the role. "I strive to be that courageous in my own life, and I succeed half the time, maybe. She's helping me get that percentage a little higher. I think she's very brave."
Billy Porter Kicks Up His Kinky Boots, Wearing the Role of a Lifetime
"If I could look back at my younger self, I would tell him that while the journey that you will have to take is going to be bumpy at times, just know that when you get to the other side, it's glorious. Because when you can truly live in the fullness and the truth of who you are, there's no better life. And sometimes that's hard to feel. I always say, 'It's easy to be who you are when who you are is what's popular.' I wasn't popular for a really long time. Being black and gay and Christian is not a popular thing. It's becoming more popular I suppose... With as difficult and challenging as the journey has been, I wouldn't change it for the world."
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The Tony-winning Kinky Boots features a book by Tony winner Harvey Fierstein and a Tony-winning score by Cyndi Lauper. Tony winner Jerry Mitchell directs and choreographs.
The musical, according to press notes, "takes you from a gentlemen’s shoe factory in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos."
The national tour also features Steven Booth as shoe factory owner Charlie Price, Lindsay Nicole Chambers as Lauren, Joe Coots as Don, Craig Waletzko as George and Grace Stockdale as Nicola.
Rounding out the ensemble are Florrie Bagel, Joe Beauregard, Damien Brett, Stephen Carrasco, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Amelia Cormack, J. Harrison Ghee, Adam Halpin, Darius Harper, Nicholas Aaron Jenkins, Jeff Kuhr, Patty Lohr, Mike Longo, Tommy Martinez, Maggie McDowell, Jennifer Noble, Anthony Picarello, Griffin Reese, Jomil Elijah Robinson, Horace V. Rogers, Ricky Schroeder, Nick Sullivan, Anne Tolpegin, Juan Torres-Falcon, Hernando Umana and Sam Zeller.
For more information visit KinkyBootsthemusical.com.
