It’s an end of an era.
Kinky Boots will dance its last dance on Broadway in 2019. The Tony-winning musical, which features music from Cyndi Lauper, will close next spring with the last performance scheduled for April 2019.
According to Entertainment Weekly, by the time the musical will close it will have played 2,507 regular performances and 34 previews. During its six-year run, it grossed $297 million on Broadway and has earned the titled of 25th-longest-running Broadway show in history.
The hit musical is based on the 2005 British film of the same name. It tells the story of Charlie Price, who inherits his family’s shoe factory. Price teams up with a drag queen named Lola, and the two set out to save the family business.
“When we first set out to make this show, we never could have imagined the success it would have here on Broadway and around the world,” Lauper and said in a statement. “We speak on behalf of the entire company when we say how grateful we are to the fans who have embraced our work across four continents, and counting!”
Director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell added, “I’ll never forget the very first performance of this show, back in Chicago in the fall of 2012. It was one of those magical nights in the theater when the material connects with its audiences in exactly the way you hope for. It felt like a gift from the theater gods then, and it still does to this day. In the years since, we have witnessed attitudes towards gender non-conformity start to change all across America in ways we couldn’t have begun to imagine in 2012. It’s never easy saying farewell to a beloved production, but knowing that Kinky Boots is leaving a more accepting world than the one it was born into is hugely gratifying for everyone involved.”
