Wayne Brady (photo: Helga Esteb/Shutterstock.com)
Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced today that Emmy Award-winner and Grammy Award nominee Wayne Brady will take over the coveted role of ‘Lola’ in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) on November 21, 2015. Brady will succeed Broadway’s original (and current) award-winning ‘Lola,’ Billy Porter. Porter has played over 800 performances in the role and won both a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his work in the production. His final historic performance in Kinky Boots will be November 20, 2015.
Kinky Boots will mark Brady’s return to Broadway after more than a decade. After making his Broadway debut in 2004 as ‘Billy Flynn’ in Chicago, Brady also played ‘Collins’ in the 2010 Neil Patrick Harris-directed Rent at the Hollywood Bowl and last year starred in Pasadena Playhouse’s trailblazing production of Kiss Me Kate. In 2003, he won both a Primetime Emmy Award for “Whose Line Is It Anyway” and a Daytime Emmy Award as host of his own talk show, “The Wayne Brady Show.” He currently hosts the CBS game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” which has earned him six Daytime Emmy Award nominations.
“Wayne Brady is a wonderful triple threat. I first had the pleasure of working with Wayne on a Disney film and have been a fan ever since,” Kinky Boots director Jerry Mitchell said. “Like Lola, he has the sass, the voice and the heart and we cannot wait to see him strut his stuff when he joins the Kinky Boots family!”
“I’m thrilled to join the Kinky Boots family and unleash my inner Lola,” Brady said. “It’s the role of a lifetime! Billy and his prodigious talent have left some pretty big red boots for me to fill. Starring in a Broadway show of this caliber has been my dream since I started performing at age 16. I’m ready to jump in with both feet!”
Now in its third smash year, Kinky Boots is also currently touring in the country on its First National Tour, and recently opened a production in Toronto in June. The show opens in the West End on September 15, 2015 at London’s Adelphi Theatre, and has also announced an Australian production set to open in October 2016.
“Kinky Boots,” set designs by David Rockwell. (photo: ballogphoto.com)
