now is the perfect time for ‘kinky boots.'
now is the perfect time for ‘kinky boots.'
I spoke with Jim Corti, the Paramount’s artistic director, about the historic Aurora theater reopening with what might be its gayest show yet.
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It’s hard to think of an industry more dramatically impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic than the live theatre industry.
When the world began to shut down at the start of the pandemic last March, theaters on Broadway, the West End and everywhere in between were among the first to shutter their doors and, following the rollout of effective vaccines, they’re about to be the last to reopen — if they’ve survived at all.
Thankfully, out here in the western suburbs, the crown jewel of downtown Aurora — the ornate Paramount Theatre — has survived and is ready to open its doors for the first time in nearly a year and a half. And it is coming right out of the gate with one of its queerest offerings yet: the celebrated Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper-penned musical Kinky Boots.
The show, postponed twice from its originally scheduled premiere of April 2020, tells the story of an unlikely partnership between a drag queen named Lola and a man named Charlie who come together to manufacture and sell (as you might have guessed) some downright sickening footwear. The original Broadway production, which starred a pre-Pose Billy Porter and actually got its test run in Chicago, was described as “irresistible,” “defiant” and “a shameless emotional button pusher.” And it was a smash hit, winning nearly half of the 13 Tony awards it was nominated for in 2013.
In addition to marking the theater’s reopening, Kinky Boots is also kicking off the tenth edition of its Broadway series. The series brings professional theatrical productions to the Fox Valley and was brought into motion by Paramount artistic director Jim Corti who has a lengthy, multi-hyphenated resume in theater including acting in the original New York casts of shows including Ragtime and Candide, and a run in A Chorus Line on Broadway, among many accolades in acting, choreography and directing.
Ahead of Kinky Boots’ Aug. 18 opening, I spoke with Corti about the Paramount’s reopening, the power of drag, and confronting the political “opposition” in these strange times. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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You’ve been at the helm at the Paramount for some time now, tell me how you landed out here and what’s on your mind heading into this premiere.
By 2008, I’d been in New York, I had done Ragtime, I had done Cabaret, I’d done the national tour of Urinetown, and there I was in 2008 in New York with the recession just hanging out going to happy hours. I had gotten a lot of regional work … but there was something that acting left me still hungry for. I realized that my directing was making more of a difference to more people and was the way to serve the most people. … There were forces at work. … I was getting called to direct in Chicago quite a bit, and so I loaded up a moving truck and drove to Chicago with the little furniture I had, and I’ve been here since then.
That’s how the Paramount, and how [Paramount CEO and president] Tim Rater, found me. I got this call to come out for an interview and meet Tim, and I’m driving and driving and driving and, you know, where is Aurora? And then I turn the corner onto Galena Boulevard and it’s like, “Wow, look at this place!’ This gorgeous marquee on this gorgeous bridge on the river, and Tim [Rater] is there waiting for me. … Tim tells the story that I looked at the scale of the space and said, “How the f*** do you fill that?!” He said, “That’s how I knew you were the right person for the job.” I think that’s how we operate now. We live in fear. That’s like our M.O. We’re always feeling like we’re taking risks how doing the most exciting thing and doing the right thing is scary sometimes, you know?
From my point of view, it took on a life of its own. To get it started has been the greatest reward because it has been so appreciated and has filled such a need for people, I mean, people grabbing me by the shoulders and going, “Thank you for doing this.” I had never experienced audience interaction like that as an actor.
And now we’re dealing with PR with the announcement of our health and safety protocols that you’re going to be vaccinated, that it’s required and your vaccination card is going to be required to see this season. It’s stirred some people up. It’s so sad it feels like partisanship, you’re either on this side or that side, and what health and safety has to do with partisanship is beyond me. I do not understand that. But that’s how I got here.
What does it mean to you to have Kinky Boots, this incredibly queer show, as the first offering of the Broadway series at the Paramount after this long break? What does it mean to you to be putting on this particular show right now?
The nonbinary, the transgender, the whole coming out and identity that’s going on for so many individuals — cultural identity, sexual identity — is something that Kinky Boots generously serves and teaches about. How to be yourself, how these characters, these drag queens, these queer folk are here to raise you up and their courage to be who they are is a signal to you to go ahead and come out if you can, if you want to. The show has a huge heart, a huge loving heart of acceptance and family. I consider it a family show, I don’t think anything happens in it that you wouldn’t have a very lively conversation with a young person about. I think it’s a perfect show to reopen the theater with, because it’s so generous and loving, and thought-provoking.
It’s funny how there are stereotypes and really there is this whole spectrum of every culture and every identity, and you see Lola really as an individual on that spectrum. I think that’s very fresh that you see this life played out on our stage that is so individual and kind of leading a revolution, in a way, to be yourself. Just be yourself and live your life. Our drag queens are living their lives out there. I’m telling you, the talent is off the charts. There’s, again, a whole spectrum of drag and we’re focused, in this story, on the artistry of drag and that they are serious artists. I just think that’s really a wonderful way to portray how we see this particular group. I think it’s really going to entertain as well as fascinate and, again, be a teaching moment about one’s own individuality and different ways to express who you are.
Was there ever any trepidation surrounding bringing this super unabashedly queer show to the western suburbs? This ain’t New York.
Certainly not. Our very first season, we did My Fair Lady — lovely, classic. We did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat — lovely, family fare. Our third show was A Chorus Line — no set, no costumes, a gay monologue and that was done deliberately to show we are going to be doing some Pulitzer Prize-winning stuff, some socially relevant stuff and speaking for all kinds of diverse voices. The show that followed was Hair, and it was directed by the late Rachel Rockwell. It wasn’t done as some kind of hippy, cartoon, tie-dyed, peace signs. Hair became a revolution on Broadway — and we had full-frontal nudity, 25 actors on the Paramount stage, full frontal. … It totally welcomes every sexuality and color of person, and we didn’t hold back on that.
For me that was a signal to the community of what we were going to be doing. We’re going to be doing something for everyone and the whole advantage of subscription theater is for such an affordable price, you’re able to see a title that you’re excited about and see something you might know nothing about. You might not know anything about a certain show and it could turn out to be your favorite show. We’ve always taken great pride in that we’ll do family fare … and we’ll do shows people have even heard of … but we’ll do them with a point of view. Every hope is that it resonates with the moment we’re living in at the time it’s playing, that it has something do with our lives that we’re living right now, that every show will find its relevance.
In the time you’ve lived out here, have you felt any changes to the way in which LGBTQ people and issues are accepted, or not accepted? To what degree do you feel this is a welcoming area now?
I was a parade marshal for the first two gay pride parades in Aurora. The first year, it was me and Tim and then I was the marshal for the second year, and I felt nothing but support. What was so moving was seeing our people on the sidewalk, on the curbside cheering this parade was so moving and how important it was for them to have a parade where they can cheer themselves, essentially that was what was going on. That they’re proud to be who they are.
This past Pride, the Paramount put on a lip-sync-for-your-life duel across the street from the theater at the North Island Center plaza, on the river. It was a family show, and the kids performing, lip syncing with the drag queens… The queens from Chicago were so grand and so generous, but they did not hold back. They totally tore it up and the kids competed with them and it was astonishing to watch. There was this spirit around it, it felt like a religious experience.
It’s remarkable the spirit in this town and the live-and-let-live acceptance toward everybody that I experience here. I know we’re in a kind of tricky demographic, we’re surrounded by very tony neighborhoods — Naperville, Geneva, Batavia. There’s a lot of corporate money in the ‘burbs as well, but I have never really felt anything except one comment on Facebook and that was it. Where I’m at now in my life is just like bring it. Let’s talk about it. There’s this wonderful thing, a phrase we’re using now of calling people in, and let’s talk and find out where I’m coming from and where you’re coming from.
You mentioned some folks are feeling stirred up by the vaccine protocol the Paramount just introduced, and it reminds me of the disturbing way some parents used while advocating for a mask-optional policy at Batavia Public Schools at a school board meeting last week. One speaker compared being asked to wear a mask to the Holocaust. It’s incredibly extreme.
We just hope everyone feels safe and protected. I just don’t get it. It says more, of course, about the person than it does about the issue and that makes me think of how can people be like that, why are people like that to say such terrifying stuff? … We’re being compared to genocide, but we’re saving lives, you know?
But I’m not like, “Good riddance, go somewhere else.” … I know the very people who are the opposition are the very people who I would like to try and convince to just sit down and watch the theater as art, watch it as theater and not as anything political, and just listen to the story and see what it makes you think about. I believe that’s how we shall continue.
Kinky Boots premieres at the Paramount Theatre on Aug. 18 with performances running through Oct. 17. Tickets and more information are available here. For more recent coverage of queer folks in the western burbs, read my previous interviews with Batavia artist Annie Hex, Aurora organizer Javi, the organizers of Geneva Pride and Batavia alderman Dan Chanzit. As always, please comment, share and subscribe if you like what you read.
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BRING ON THE LINKS (Here’s what I’m reading, watching, listening to and thinking about this week):
In the most Leo-Leo coupling move ever, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck just made their rekindled relationship official via the final frame in J. Lo’s Instagram carousel post celebrating her 52nd birthday. To call this move iconic is not doing it justice.
Even as the delta variant of Covid begins to surge, Lollapalooza is about to bring thousands of intoxicated teens to congregate in downtown Chicago. Technically, they’re supposed to be vaccinated or have a recent negative Covid test to gain entry, but music critic Jim DeRogatis explained brilliantly to my former colleague and forever work spouse Kim Bellware in The Washington Post why this and other outdoor music festivals could spell danger for smaller indoor music venues that are just reopening after a very long hiatus.
To be honest, I’m really beyond frustrated about the many Americans who are choosing not to get a vaccine right now and how they are contributing to the prolonging of the pandemic here. Situations that once felt relatively safe to take part in again feel potentially unsafe, and we really shouldn’t have to be in this boat right now. This new piece — “Vaccinated America Has Had Enough” — from David Frum in The Atlantic sums it all up pretty handily.
Cher’s #FreeBritney tweets have been seriously God-tier content (topped only, possibly, by the humble-brag that she apparently just spent three hours kicking back with her buddy Tina Turner on Sunday).
Gabe Erales, the recent winner of season 18 of Top Chef, just broke his silence and took to Instagram to apologize for the sexual misconduct scandal that has formed a cloud over an otherwise seriously delightful season set in Portland, Oregon. I’m sorry, but I’m still Team Shota.
Jordan Firstman attracted a lot of buzz for his “quarantine comedy” but was bullied off of Twitter due to the resurfacing of a series of racist tweets (and a lackluster apology for said tweets) last December. Now, his “30th” birthday party reportedly led to alt-pop princess Marina Diamandis contracting Covid, and Twitter is concerned that the other titans of the sub-genre present at the party (including Dua Lipa and Phoebe Bridgers) could also be infected. This is incredibly niche content but, excuse me, I am riveted and need to read more reporting from this party.
Reba McEntire’s “I’m a Survivor” (which you should recognize as the intro song from her iconic sitcom) is trending on TikTok and I’ve yet to see a bad variation on this meme yet. This is one of my favorites, though the addition of the wig, makeup and signature red tank top in this one gives it extra flavor.
I haven’t yet seen M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film [Old], but the “beach that makes you old” memes all over Twitter right now are basically the same thing, I’m guessing? Please someone tell me if I actually need to see this movie.
One of my favorite new music “discoveries” of the pandemic was the Chicago band Dehd, which just did a series of three mini-concerts around Chicago from the back of a moving truck. I don’t really have words, I just adore this band a lot. If you’re into a surf/garage/post-punk vibe, give it a try. Also, this Troop Beverly Hills-esque video for the incredibly summery song “Haha” deserves extra credit for starring the brilliant Chicago performer Alex Grelle: