Cranberry native kicks up heels in Kinky Boots

When a musical is titled “Kinky Boots,” footwear plays an important role.

Based on a true story and the 2005 movie of the same name, the 2013 Tony Award winner for best musical focuses on a nearly bankrupt English shoe factory that reinvents itself by creating and building thigh-high boots that are not just sturdy and comfortable but also gloriously flamboyant for drag artists to wear.

“You've gotta get the boots right,” says Gregg Barnes, who designed the costumes and footwear for the show, which is making a return visit to Pittsburgh from Sept. 20 to 25 as a nonsubscription presentation of PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh.

The most eye-catching boots are worn by Lola, who convinces the factory's reluctant owner, Charlie Price, to take his company in a new direction. Charlie and the dancers in the ensemble find themselves slipping their toes into what Lola calls “6 feet of tubular sex.”

When 6-foot-tall dancers are doing elaborate and joyous dance routines in 6-inch heels, those boots also need to be sturdy.

“We're asking them to do slam splits and quick changes. (They are) being carted up and down stairs in baskets. And we have to make (the boots) look as if they're brand new every night, but survive eight shows a week,” Barnes says.

They turn out to be relatively comfortable — after you get used to them, says Josh Tolle, an ensemble member with the national tour who plays Charlie's best friend, Harry, and also appears on stage from time to time as the understudy for Charlie Price.

“The first two weeks were painful,” says Tolle, who grew up in Cranberry as Josh Smith and graduated from Seneca Valley High School in 2009. “Now, they are like a glove, comfy. ... They feel like you could play basketball in them.”

After graduating from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2013, Tolle moved to New York City and began auditioning for musicals.

“That's what you do at least half the time,” Tolle says. “You get a lot of ‘nos' for one ‘yes.' ... Sometimes you hit something that you are right for, but it's not your ultimate dream. This is one of my favorite shows.”

Over an 18-month period, he had four separate auditions for four different roles in “Kinky Boots” before being cast in the national touring company.

When the offer for a role in “Kinky Boots” finally came, things moved quickly. After auditioning on a Friday afternoon, he was offered the role the following Monday.

Each performer gets boots that are custom made for them and their roles.

“The first thing they do is send you to a workshop in a high-rise in Manhattan where people are cobbling shoes. The next thing you know, you have $3,000 boots. But they won't let you keep them,” Tolle says.

On that Wednesday, he and his new boots flew to Fort Worth to learn his roles and join the company. Six days later, he was performing with “Kinky Boots” in Tampa.

His favorite aspect of the musical is its score by rock musician Cyndi Lauper.

“The score is incredible, dynamic. I'm a singer at heart. This is fun, fun music to sing — and challenging,” he says. “My favorite part is when I get to go on to play Charlie. I got to (do that) at the Kennedy Center (in Washington, D.C.) to a sold-out house.”

Tolle looks forward to returning to Pittsburgh, where his parents — James and Peggy Smith — still live, as well as spending time with his grandfather, Melvin Tolle, whom he calls “an incredible influence in my life.”

He'll travel with the company when it goes to Japan for five weeks of performances.

“This has been an absolutely amazing dream come true,” he says. “I'm exactly where I belong.”

Alice T. Carter is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.