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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

“DANCING WITH THE STARS’”
MARK BALLAS
JOINS THE FACTORY AS ‘CHARLIE PRICE’ IN
“KINKY BOOTS”
BEGINNING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
FOR A LIMITED RUN

New York, NY (August 9, 2018) – Kinky Boots producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announce today that Emmy-nominated and two-time “Dancing with the Stars” champion Mark Ballas will take over the role of ‘Charlie Price’ in the Tony Award®-winning musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45^th Street) beginning on Tuesday, September 11, 2018.  He will play a limited run through Sunday, November 4, 2018. Ballas succeeds David Cook who will play his last performance on Sunday, September 9, 2018.

Ballas most recently performed on Broadway as the final ‘Frankie Valli’ in the Broadway run of Jersey Boys. He returned to the role at The Muny in St. Louis this past summer.

“I am so ready to come back to Broadway and can’t wait to step into those iconic boots and be part of the Kinky Boots legacy,” Ballas said. “Kinky Boots is a heartfelt, positive, and joyous show with an even more beautiful message that we all need right now more than ever. It will be an honor to perform alongside this amazing company and get to tell this story eight times a week!”

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 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.

Kinky Boots has won every major Best Musical Award and is represented around the world with the Tony Award-winning Broadway company now in its 6^th year, a London production in its third year (where it won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Musical) with a recently announced UK & Ireland Tour commencing next summer, a North American First National Tour in its fourth year, an upcoming production in Germany, a Korean production returning to Seoul for a third season this coming Spring and a Japanese production returning for a second season to Tokyo and Osaka in 2019. Other previous productions include an extended run in Toronto (winner of the Dora Award for Musical) and an award-winning Australian production which concluded in October 2017. The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Kinky Boots is available on Sony Masterworks Broadway.

The current Broadway cast of Kinky Boots includes: J. Harrison Ghee (as Lola), David Cook (Charlie Price), Carrie St. Louis (as Lauren), Daniel Stewart Sherman, Caroline Bowman, Marcus Neville, Callan Bergmann, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Blaine Alden Krauss, Kyle Post, Charlie Sutton, Joey Taranto, Corey Mach, Natalie Joy Johnson, Jennifer Perry, Adinah Alexander, Eugene Barry-Hill, Meryn Beckett, Stephen Berger, Damien Brett, Justin Colombo, Alfred Dalpino, Holly Davis, Jesus Del Orden, Stephane Duret, Christy Faber, Mia Gentile, Blair Goldberg, Cooper Lantz, Eric Leviton, John Jeffrey Martin, Julia McLellan, Michael Milkanin, Connor Mills, Christian Mullins, Nathan Peck.

The design team for Kinky Boots includes Tony^® Award nominee 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.

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.

B I O G R A P H I E S

Mark Ballas is an accomplished actor, singer, dancer, and musician who trained at The Italia Conti Performing Arts School in London. Mark recently made his Broadway debut in the final cast of Jersey Boys playing ‘Frankie Valli,’ a role he reprised in the Los Angeles run and at The MUNY this summer. Additional theatre credits include The Buddy Holly Story, Copacabana (Tony), Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Mark is also half of music duo ALEXANDER JEAN, alongside his wife, BC Jean. Their first single “ROSES & VIOLETS” debuted at #1 on the singer songwriter iTunes chart, #6 on the iTunes overall chart, charted in 7 countries. The duos first EP “HEAD HIGH” & second EP “HIGH ENOUGH” both hit #1 on the singer songwriter albums chart & Top 30 on the overall chart. The duo also toured the United States 3 times throughout 2016 & 2017; their most recent tour was opening for Violinist Lindsey Stirling on her sold out Warmer in the Winter Tour, they are currently working on their 3rd release. Mark is also an accomplished flamenco and electric-guitar player. He also captivated audiences on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” for 19 seasons. He’s a two-time champion, 10-time finalist, and 2011 Emmy nominee for his work on the show. Choreography credits include Pepsi’s Super Bowl commercial starring Sofia Vergara and the Oscar commercial for Shonda Rhimes’ The Catch.

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