“KINKY BOOTS” WELCOMES CALLUM FRANCIS, UK AND AUSTRALIA’S AWARD-WINNING ‘LOLA’ TO BROADWAY
Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Alana Karpoff / Samantha Wolfin
rick@omdkc.com / alana@omdkc.com / samantha@omdkc.com
212 695 7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
UK AND AUSTRALIA’S AWARD-WINNING ‘LOLA’
CALLUM FRANCIS
STEPS INTO THE HEELS ON BROADWAY IN
“KINKY BOOTS”
BEGINNING FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2019
FOR A LIMITED RUN
CONOR MAYNARD TO BEGIN HIS RUN AS “CHARLIE PRICE”
ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2018
New York, NY (November 8, 2018) – Kinky Boots producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced today that Callum Francis, star of the UK and Australian Tours of Kinky Boots, will make his Broadway debut as ‘Lola’ in the Tony Award®-winning musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) beginning on Friday, January 11, 2019. He will play the role through Sunday, March 17, 2019. Francis succeeds J. Harrison Ghee who departs the show on Thursday, January 10, 2019, but is set to return to the role again after Francis, beginning on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 through the show’s final performance on Sunday, April 7, 2019.
Francis reprises the role directly from the Kinky Boots UK National Tour where he has been starring in the show since it began on September 19, 2018. His run in that tour will conclude on December 15, 2018. Prior to the UK Tour, he starred as ‘Lola’ in the Australian Tour of Kinky Boots, where he received the 2017 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical. Francis also appeared in the original London production of Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theatre. His other West End credit include: Miss Saigon, The Lion King, and Ghost. He received his training from Laine Theatre Arts in England and has also appeared regionally in the UK in Fame and in international productions of Hair and Ultimate Broadway.
“I am so excited and honored to be able to join the incredible Kinky Boots company on Broadway,” Francis said. “I’ve been so lucky to have been able to play the fabulous ‘Lola’ to audiences in the UK and Australia. Broadway has always been a dream of mine and I am thankful that I get to continue to play this role that inspires love and acceptance.”
For photos of Callum Francis, click here.
The Kinky Boots producers also recently announced that UK pop sensation, Conor Maynard will take over the role of ‘Charlie Price’ this fall. He was originally announced to start on Tuesday, November 20, 2018, but Maynard will now begin performances a day earlier, on Monday, November 19, 2018. He will play the role through Thursday, January 10, 2019. Maynard succeeds Mark Ballas who will play his last performance on Sunday, November 18, 2018.
Ghee has been starring as ‘Lola’ since May 1, 2018. He originally joined the production from March 6, 2017 through September 24, 2017 and returned to the role from January 8, 2018 through March 4, 2018. He will return to the show on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 and play through the show’s final performance April 7, 2019.
The Tony Award-winning, record-shattering Broadway production of Kinky Boots will play its final performance on April 7, 2019. At the time of its closing, the musical will be the 25th longest-running production in Broadway history, having played 2,507 regular performances and 34 previews.
The winner of six 2013 Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, Kinky Boots features a Tony® Award-winning score by Cyndi Lauper, a book by Tony® Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and direction and choreography by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell.
Kinky Boots continues playing on stages throughout the globe and is currently represented with a London production in its fourth year (having won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Musical), a UK Tour, a North American National Tour in its fifth year and a Japanese production returning to Tokyo and Osaka for a second season this coming spring. Previous international productions of Kinky Boots include a Germany production, a Korean production which completed a third successful season this past spring, an extended run in Toronto (winner of the Dora Award for Best Musical) and an award-winning Australian production. The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Kinky Boots is available on Sony Masterworks Broadway.
Based on the Miramax film written by Geoff Deane & Tim Firth, Kinky Boots tells the uplifting and heartwarming tale of Charlie Price, a young man reluctantly taking over his family’s struggling shoe factory and looking for a fresh idea. Charlie meets and finds inspiration in Lola and together, they discover that it takes a good friend to make a great pair.
The current Broadway cast of Kinky Boots includes: J. Harrison Ghee (as Lola), Mark Ballas (Charlie Price), Carrie St. Louis (as Lauren), Daniel Stewart Sherman, Caroline Bowman, Marcus Neville, James Delisco Beeks, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Ian Gallagher Fitzgerald, Fred Odgaard, Kyle Post, Joey Taranto, Corey Mach, Natalie Joy Johnson, Jennifer Perry, Adinah Alexander, Eugene Barry-Hill, Stephen Berger, Damien Brett, Justin Colombo, Alfred Dalpino, Holly Davis, Stephane Duret, Mia Gentile, Blair Goldberg, Cooper Lantz, John Jeffrey Martin, Julia McLellan, Michael Milkanin, Connor Mills, Christian Mullins, Nathan Peck, Eric Walker, Jr.
The design team for Kinky Boots includes Tony® Award-winner David Rockwell (Scenic Design), Tony® Award-winner Gregg Barnes (Costume Design), Tony Award-winner Kenneth Posner (Lighting Design), Tony® Award-winner John Shivers (Sound Design), Josh Marquette (Hair Design), Randy Houston Mercer (Make-up Design), Telsey + Company (Casting), with Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Stephen Oremus.
Tickets for Kinky Boots ($55 – $163) are available for purchase in person at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre box office (Monday – Saturday, 10am – 8pm; Sunday, 12pm – 6 pm), online at www.ticketmaster.com. For information on group sales, contact Group Sales Box Office/Broadway.com at groups@broadway.com or 1-800-BROADWAY, ext 2.
The performance schedule for Kinky Boots is as follows: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 2pm and 8pm, Thursday at 7pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. See KinkyBootsTheMusical.com for variations.
The performance schedule for Thanksgiving week is as follows:
Monday, November 19 at 8 pm
Tuesday, November 20 at 7 pm
Wednesday, November 21 at 8 pm
Thursday, November 22 DARK
Friday, November 23 at 2 pm and 8 pm
Saturday, November 24 at 2 pm and 8 pm
Sunday, November 25 at 3 pm
There is a general ticket lottery for each performance; lottery entries will be accepted online (lottery.kinkybootsthemusical.com) beginning one week prior up to 11am EST the day before the desired performance, and names will be chosen at random, for a limited number of $40 tickets. See KinkyBootsTheMusical.com for details and restrictions.
Kinky Boots is produced on Broadway by Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig, James L. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Independent Presenters Network, CJ E&M, Jayne Baron Sherman, Just for Laughs Theatricals/Judith Ann Abrams, Yasuhiro Kawana, Jane Bergere, Allan S. Gordon & Adam S. Gordon, Ken Davenport, Hunter Arnold, Lucy and Phil Suarez, Bryan Bantry, Ron Fierstein and Dorsey Regal, Jim Kierstead/Gregory Rae, BB Group/Christina Papagjika, Michael DeSantis/Patrick Baugh, Brian Smith/Tom and Connie Walsh, Warren Trepp, and Jujamcyn Theaters.
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