His father has died, leaving Charlie in charge of a Northampton, England, shoe factory he really doesn’t want to run. The young man spends some time in a London pub, talking over his problems with a friend.
When he leaves the pub, he notices a skirmish. It looks like a woman is in trouble. Charlie rushes to her aid and is knocked unconscious. So maybe he’s not the best street fighter in the world, but you can’t deny he’s chivalrous.
“Charlie is a really good guy at the heart of it,” said Noah Silverman, the actor who plays Charlie in the touring version of the Tony Award-winning musical “Kinky Boots,” which Broadway in Scranton will bring to the Scranton Cultural Center Feb. 13-15.
“Outside of the bar, he sees a fight going on and he’s just trying to protect someone who’s in danger.”
When Charles regains consciousness, he finds he is in the dressing room of the woman he tried to rescue. The damsel in distress is actually a drag queen named Lola.
“They are two people with completely different lives, from completely different worlds,” Silverman said.
Buy that doesn’t mean they can’t be friends.
In fact, after Lola explains how difficult it is for a drag queen to find a boot flamboyant enough to catch the eye but also sturdy enough not to fall apart, Charlie eventually realizes that the family shoe factory, which has fallen on hard financial times, might be revived by catering to this niche market.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful story about two people who come together and find they have similarities and they create something amazing,” Silverman said.
The musical features big, show-stopping ensemble numbers, and Silverman especially enjoys “Everybody Say Yeah,” which takes place at the shoe factory. “Factories have conveyor belts,” the actor pointed out, and it was a lot of fun to incorporate them into that number.
“I overall love the music,” Silverman said, noting it was written by pop icon Cyndi Lauper while Harvey Fierstein wrote the book. “The songs are so much fun. They’ll have you jumping up and down and dancing with us.”
Musically speaking, the show also features ballads, with some of the most poignant focusing on the difficult relationships both Lola — whose given name is Simon — and Charlie have had with their fathers.
Charlie’s dad was disappointed that he wasn’t enthusiastic about the shoe business. Simon’s dad was angry that his son was too fascinated with sparkly high heels and all that entailed.
“They both do have tough relationships with their dads. That’s where they come together,” Silverman said. “They find a way to kind of love themselves and then find connection and love with their fathers. It’s really beautiful, as they help each other through that.”
“A lot of people in this world can relate to problems in relationships … or moments when they feel they might not really belong … or that other people think they’re weird,” Silverman said, noting that as the show travels the country, it draws audience members “from all walks of life. This show is for everyone,” he said. “It’s about coming together, finding similarities, lifting each other up and fully accepting each other for who we are.”
There is a point in the show when Charlie dons a pair of “kinky boots,” himself, and Silverman estimates the heels are 6 inches high. It doesn’t sound like they would be easy to walk in, but he takes them in stride.
“I really only have to wear them for about 10 minutes,” he said with a laugh. “Compared to some of my friends who have to wear heels for the whole show, it’s nothing.”
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 and 1 p.m. Feb. 15. Tickets are available at the Scranton Cultural Center box office and through ticketmaster.com/.