iTunes Exclusive Episode Kinky Boots

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Bitch, baby!
Greetings, Empire member and our members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your lifetime, you have checked into the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday,
night 70's during four Pacific, your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
But it also means you subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, because it is
time for another hot-toothed exclusive.
The 276th one of these things, as the March towards 300 continues, greetings.
My name is Rob.
I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast, and I don't want to boot it very often.
They're very uncomfortable for me.
Yes, I live in Texas and stop at the stereotypes.
I know what you're doing, I can hear you do.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode, but you don't know who is here with me.
Because we have a very, very special guest for this particular episode.
A man that may have only done the show once in almost 700 episodes total, and just saying
it would be true.
He is one of my favorite people in the world, he is one of my dear friends, he is John
Catherine, you can call him gum, but his mom and even John Catherine, I'm going to
call him John Catherine.
Welcome sir.
Hello there, Rob.
Speak right in the microphone if you want to.
Yes sir.
There we go.
That's it.
I'm looking forward.
Whatever we do one of these, it is to review something this particular episode is no different.
We are doing a stage production in this particular episode, because it is the return
to the Dallas Fort Worth area after two years of kinky boots.
But before we get started, I don't have done here to do this for me.
So I have to do it by myself.
We always have to think our vendors who are so wonderful to us that we get to do these
things.
They give us great seats to sit in so we can review these things for you.
So we got us in a quick shout out to our boy, run, see you soon.
Dallas Summer, Musicals, Music, Hall of Fair Park.
Thank you guys so much for letting us come out and see this on press night so that we can
review it for the Empire to help them make informed decisions.
So you'd have to go back away.
And I don't know if we can go back far enough to know the last time that we reviewed this
thing.
I'll have to take a look in the archive here.
But this, like I said, this was here about two years ago and we saw it then and I thought
this was going to be an interesting way to do this particular episode because John wasn't
with us the first time we saw it.
So we're going to, you're going to get two different perspectives here.
You're going to get the perspective of someone who's seeing it for the first time, but you're
also going to get the perspective for me of someone who's actually seeing it for the
second time so that we can compare and contrast a little bit.
Everybody with me, all right, let's get rolling for those of you that I've never heard
of kinky boots, it's actually very loosely based on a true story from England.
And basically what you need to know is this, Charlie Price is the son of a man who runs
a shoe factory.
And after he moves to London with his fiance, his father passes away and in doing so he
must lead the shoe factory because they've fallen on some hard times.
What he doesn't realize is that they are failing badly.
And so he's trying to figure out how he's going to be able to help these people keep
their jobs and keep the factory open.
Well, in the chance meeting with a drag queen named Lola, he realizes that there is a
market that's that needs to be covered.
And that market is high-heeled boots that can support a man's frame.
And that's, I think that's pretty much all you really need to know.
And niche market.
Yes.
And from there, it's about relationships and how one has to be OK with one's self and
things of that nature.
John, I want to, I kind of want to get to your view first.
Let's talk first of all, you walk into Fair Park.
We get sat down.
What were your impressions as this thing fired up?
I was intrigued from the, from the get go because the stage hand that came out, I didn't
actually realize that he was part of the production, which is how they tell people to
turn off their cell phones.
Exactly.
And it engaged me from the beginning and then it just goes right into the show.
And I was pretty much captured from the first note.
OK.
By the way, the original run that we saw the last run anyway, that Kinky Boots.
That was iTunes exclusive 82.
This is iTunes's exclusive 276.
So if you want to compare and contrast how long it's been.
I think from a set standpoint, it was, it was gorgeous.
Oh, it was just about, it was pretty much the same set set up that we saw two years ago,
not a lot changed there.
But visually gorgeous, visually stunning.
The transitions from scene to scene just as beautiful as they were the first go around.
Same list.
Yeah, one of my favorite transitions and we talked about this in iTunes exclusive 82 was,
in the beginning, you meet Lola and you meet Charlie as children, right?
And the way they transition that Charlie is coming down the stairs and they're moving
something across the stage and as Charlie goes behind it, the adult Charlie comes out
from behind it.
So there's just, it's like a real quick switch that if you're not paying attention, you
don't catch it.
But it's really well done of everything worked like a charm.
I thought from a stage mix standpoint, there were times where the band was overpowering
the vocals a little bit.
But that could have been our proximity to the stage too.
Yeah, that's true.
It never took me out of it.
You know, and this, this is a, with the intermission, it runs about two and a half hours.
And as, as normal, it didn't seem like it really, it's past very, very well.
And as per normal, actu is always shorter than act one.
And you get the bulk of the story and act one and then your conflict resolution and act
two because they, they're going to take these boots to try to save the factory.
They're going to take them to a big fashion show in Milan.
So you have to deal with that as well.
From a performance standpoint, I was very pleased.
But I had to think to myself, do I hold the first time I saw this in such a high regard?
So I thought the cast here is great.
But I kind of felt at the, the last go round, maybe it was a little bit stronger.
Okay.
And I kid, there's a, and I don't know if it's because my memories are what they are,
or if I was just holding this to such a high bar.
Not to say this cat is bad, it's not because I really enjoyed this cast.
But there was just, it, it was a different feel.
Now for somebody who hadn't seen it before, how did you feel that the cast did?
Oh, I thought they were fabulous.
You know, the dancers were absolutely incredible, just, you know, choreography was amazing.
Yeah, just spot on.
And so much activity is going on for so long.
It wasn't, you know, there's no low in the action, my friend.
No, it's not 30 seconds.
And then we talked for, you know, two minutes.
It was constant.
And I caught myself, you know, fixating on one or two characters for a point of time.
And just watching their facial expressions and their movements.
And they're just so into it, it just drew me in.
Story was adapted for the stage by Harvey Firestein, all of the music written by Cindy Lopper.
This thing took home a ton of hardware.
And she's so unusual.
She is very unusual.
But make me almost state, this is not a Cindy Lopper musical.
No, this is not, you know, you're not going to hear girls just want to have fun.
You're not going to hear time after time.
You're not going to hear.
I drove all night.
And it's heard not Celine Dion.
Let's get it straight.
These are original songs that she's written for this musical.
Right.
It was just a different feel for me.
Your leads, uh, Lola played by Timothy Ware and Charlie played by Kurt Hansen.
Where destroys it here.
Where carries Lola.
And he almost carries the production on his own.
Yeah.
Hansen has an amazing singing voice.
There were a couple of points where I think there may have been some technical difficulties
but his voice carried so well that it didn't, it never, it never stopped.
Right.
Where's accent got a little weird for me?
Where everything he would say, he would say a sentence and it would end up like a peer.
Like he was constantly asking a question.
Right.
And it kind of got to me a little bit.
And the longer it went on, the more I heard it.
Right.
But I don't know that it took me out of it.
No, it was slightly distracting, but it wasn't so much that I was like, okay.
I can't do this anymore.
And a really strong supporting cast, too.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, people that were, sometimes I'm just one liners helped carry things.
Uh, the guy you were talking about Don played by Aaron Wallpole.
He has, you know, he's the guy that comes out in the beginning.
Tell you to hang up your phones.
Right.
He has a very interesting role as the story goes on.
But then you also had to deal with the, the fiancé versus love interest subplot.
On Nicola played by Catarina Papacastis.
I really hope I got that right.
Shathas, she was very, very strong.
Yeah.
Very believable was the, not really the enemy or the bad person, but you didn't really
want to like her because there was this other love entry.
Well, please, please, you don't want to like her because you can see that there's an
interior motive.
There is, but at the same time, she has his best, she thinks she has his best interest
at heart.
But what she doesn't realize is he's just kind of a long for the ride in this thing.
And he loves her, but his heart isn't there.
Right.
And you've got the love interest almost lost in the future.
Lauren played by her Rose Hemingway.
She is amazing.
Yeah.
Rose Hemingway.
All I have to say is the history of wrong guys.
What a great number.
And she plays it with a corkiness that I really, really dig.
She embraces the weirdness of the character, but keeps it grounded in a way that doesn't
make it too musically.
Right.
What that makes any sense?
Yeah.
And the longer it goes, the better she gets.
Because she gets more time and she's out there and doing what she does.
Very much enjoyed her performance.
I don't know that there's an overall performance I did not enjoy.
And then you pointed something out to me when we were in pre-show that I didn't know
playing George, the right hand man to Charlie's father and then to Charlie himself, who
I didn't even recognize with a beard and glasses.
The great Jim J. Bullock is in this thing.
A man whose name I have heard and probably a decade.
I've forgotten that he did that talk show would take me out.
Yeah.
He had a talk show with him.
He was a staple in the 80s game show celebrity runs, also he was on two close for comfort.
Missed rash.
Monroe.
And he's great in this.
He has a couple of nice little moments and there's a lot of great given take with this
cast.
And those where they need to be, they know where their characters are and they roll with
it.
They are their characters.
Go absolutely.
I mean they own each one of them own their character and it's very believable.
And the thing that I really took away from this is all the characters progress as you
go through the play.
They go through something and they become better and different and changed at the end.
And it's very intriguing to see what you think is going to be a matter character actually
play a huge role.
And there's a couple of moments to where you think you know where a story line is going.
And then it completely takes a left turn on you and makes you go.
Wow.
Yeah.
I'm just as kind of guilty as that person is because I thought you were going this way.
And this is what wasn't what you were trying to do.
And that's what makes a good story.
And you can tell the same types of stories but you can put new twists on them to get your
audience entertained.
And that might be where my enjoyment came from at this different from yours because you
knew that these twists were going to happen.
I'm experienced.
Some of them I forgot about.
Okay.
Because it's been two years.
Right.
But you know when you have no idea that something like that is coming down the road and
all of a sudden it happens you're like, oh, whoa, I wasn't expecting that.
So it was, it was a really good knot at the theater.
I mean, really, really good end to be honest with you.
Not knowing very much about it.
Going in.
I didn't really have.
Talk right into it.
I didn't have much expectations.
You know, I didn't.
I didn't.
Good bad.
Otherwise, I think it was just a night to do something.
And I came away and this might be one of my favorite productions I've ever seen.
It's it's up there.
And there's a lot of people out there that will say, I don't know about this kind of subject
matter.
Don't worry about that.
No.
Play this for what it is.
Absolutely.
It's a wonderful musical.
It's funny.
It's got good heart.
I'm going to say something.
Not my father's son gets me every time.
Absolutely.
It is a beautifully sung song by, and these two guys have very handsome and wear have really
good chemistry together vocally.
Yeah.
The harmonies were gorgeous, especially in that song.
When it's the kind of song that those two guys were singing, and there's not a lot
of instrumentation to it, so you have to carry it.
And they both do very, very well.
And it's such a poignant part of the story too, that if they can't pull that off, the rest
of this doesn't work.
Agreed.
That's the point where it all came together and the story progresses to what it ends
up at the end.
And if that isn't sold, the rest of it's not going to work.
Just when you get to the end of the production, the final number, if you're not at least
tap in one foot, you may want to check your pulse.
Absolutely.
Because when you get to the grand finale, which is raise you up and just be, if you're
not tapping in the lead, and you know what, even if you're not tapping in, tap a toe, tap
toe inside your boots.
Just one.
Just one.
If you're not doing that, check your pulse.
And this cap sells it, too, like they sell the energy.
Yeah.
And you're going to feel the energy come off them, and it's going to motivate you as
well.
I don't say that.
One little thing.
I mean, I loved it.
I had a great time at this.
Yeah.
There was very few technical flaws.
I thought, I mean, the mic's had a little bit of an issue there.
Here and there.
But not bad.
And you could just expect that the only flood I saw was when they're going through one
of their huge dance routines, he kind of, you know, fumbled the kinky boots and I think
one fact, we hit the stage, but quick recovery, no problems there, and a lot better
than I would have done.
Oh, it was like that.
I'm not going to lie to you.
Oh, my gosh.
That was the other thing I came away with was how much time do these guys have to spend
learning to walk around, and that would be easier if I was instilled to them with these
guys who are doing.
Gene Simmons would go, damn, that's how you're walking, right?
And this is such a mature kiss fan, it's all right.
Anything else you want to cover before we get to the final analysis?
No, not really.
I mean, just I just want to again hit the point that these actors and actresses were just
spot on.
And I left believing that, you know, they were their characters, Lola was Lola.
And this and you're, we're also, and we haven't mentioned this.
This is a man who is a two-time theater dad.
Yes.
So it's not like he's just going to the show, like he knows what he's looking for.
And just very impressive, very impressive.
Two very talented daughters, both deep into theater.
Yes.
So this is, this is that, this is some slub off the street.
That would be me.
No, no.
But the way we do the final analysis on the show, we're not going to give you thumbs-up
thumbs-down, we're not going to give you, you know, five wigs or whatever.
Our audience whom we affectionately refer to as the Empire, they want us to go deeper,
we're going to go deeper.
Here's how this works.
Oh, good.
Up to two questions.
Very nice.
Up to two questions.
Question number one is, would you see this production again?
If the answer's no, then we're done here.
But if the answer's yes, we're going to do it a little bit differently because this
is a stage production.
So what we're going to gauge your interest on is where would you be willing to comfortably
sit?
Because of course, the closer to the stage, you get the more money it's going to cost you.
Sorry.
So think about that, of where would you say this would be where I'd be comfortably
sat and not feel like I'm paying too much or I'm paying too little.
So John, would you see this again?
Oh, yes.
All right.
Yeah.
So where you want to sit to do it?
Anywhere they want to put me in the theater?
Get in the door.
Yeah.
All right.
It's awesome.
I believe that the closer you are to the experience, the more personal it becomes
to you.
And, you know, I would think that I would want to sit equally, you know, as close or at least,
you know, in comparison to where we were last night.
But I have a feeling that even from the balcony, you're just going to translate.
I think you're going to lose anything up there.
I've already seen it again.
So I think we can answer that question fairly quickly.
I would go a third time for me.
I would love to be dead center lower level for this.
Okay.
Because I really want to take everything in.
I mean, there's not a bad seat in the place for this production, because there's
not a lot like going on in the sides of stage, like you would have seen in something like
Curious and Senator of the Law of the Night Time.
But with this, if you're in that center section, whether you're in the balcony or on the
floor or in that second level, you're going to see everything.
But again, not a bad seat in the whole place, just get in the door.
This does play a music called a fair park through April the 9th.
So you've got about a week and a half to see this.
And remember, we have people in the Empire all over the world.
And there's multiple touring companies all over the world touring this musical right now.
If this comes anywhere near you, get a ticket, get in.
I guarantee you will enjoy yourself.
And again, thank you so much to everybody at music called a fair park in Dallas,
summer musicals.
I boy, friends, see you soon.
Always takes care of us.
We're such fans of those guys.
And let me say something else.
Coming up in the next six weeks after we record this, we're going to be live at music
called a fair park because we will be covering again for the second time, the high school
musical awards.
We will be there doing the show live in May.
So stay by the channel.
We're going to give you all the details on that.
Also, make sure you go to Dallas, summer musicals.org.com, I think org takes you there too.
Look at what's coming up with Dallas, summer musicals.
The next two seasons are going to be amazing.
Look for it.
Because there's such great things, and Dallas, summer musicals does it big.
There's such a fan of everybody over there, thank you guys so much.
That being said, and thank you, sir, for joining me.
Thank you for covering for the boys.
Yes.
You know, Don was otherwise disposed and Chad's handling some business on his own.
And besides, if you weren't here, it would just be me talking, and that's happened once.
We don't ever want that to happen again.
We've been my pleasure.
So if you ever go back and listen to the solo adventure, it's, it was a thing.
But any time you know you're always welcome to join us, we'll always have a microphone
ready for you in that case.
Let's do the plugs.
Visit our website.
You can find my written review there as well as Don's, www.theclubhousepodcast.com is where
you want to go.
Find out everything you need to know in some stuff you don't.
You can follow us on social media.
Our Twitter handle is at Clubhouse Show.
Everything else is the Clubhouse podcast.
Use all three words in that order or you're going to wind up somewhere else.
You can follow me on social media.
Everything is at yes that Rob Irvin that is called ERVIM.
My normal co-host for this show is Chad Wamik.
You can follow him at Chad N.P.G.69.
Johnny, do you want to plug?
Nope.
Okay.
Fair enough.
The official fact checker of this show is Don Ford.
You can follow him at Fondon Go.
You can also email him for information on how we can come to a live show for you.
We love doing live shows.
We've got a lot of them coming up just stick by our website and social media because we're
going to be all over town here for the next few weeks.
He's Don at the Clubhousepodcast.com.
You can email me questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at the Clubhousepodcast.com and Chad is Chad at the Clubhousepodcast.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that and Jules
Wamik probably hang out with her husband.
It's kind of how marriage works.
Our normal show every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific is your one-stop shop for all
things pop culture are just keep subscribing on your favorite podcast app and you'll
get all the cool stuff like this.
So until next time, for John for the Empire, I am Rob.
Clubhouse is close and you could really put Brittany Palmer in this.
I don't care where you have to work for you.
She can work in a factory, she's got skills, she could do that for you.