\'Kinky Boots\' Sets April 4 Broadway Opening

By PATRICK HEALY

“Kinky Boots,” one of the most anticipated musicals of the new Broadway season, with Cyndi Lauper making her debut as a songwriter for the stage, will begin performances on March 5, 2013 at the Al Hirschfeld Theater and open on April 4, the producers announced on Wednesday.

Based on a 2005 British film about a shoe factory heir who enlists a drag queen to help save the family business, “Kinky Boots” will star Tony Award nominee Stark Sands (“Journey's End,” “American Idiot”) as the scion Charlie and Billy Porter (Belize in the Off Broadway revival of “Angels in America”) as the resourceful Lola. The show's book writer is Harvey Fierstein, who won a Tony for his book for “La Cage aux Folles” and was nominated in the category last season for the Broadway musical “Newsies.”

Ms. Lauper, a Grammy-winning pop icon of the 1980s, has written the music and lyrics for the production, which will have an out-of-town run in Chicago this fall. Jerry Mitchell will direct, and the lead producers are Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig.

Like “Kinky Boots,” most of the new Broadway musicals expected this season are inspired by movies or books; the others include “Bring It On,” “Rebecca,” “A Christmas Story,” “Matilda,” “Diner,” and “Hands on a Hardbody.”