You can change the world if you can change your mind

The Weidner Center’s Broadway in Green Bay series continues next week with a production of Kinky Boots.

With the musical being based on a movie, which was based on a true story, and the score written by Cyndi Lauper, audiences are in for a unique theatrical experience.

“It’s definitely a pop rock-influenced score, for certain,” said John Anker Bow, who plays George in the production. “It’s got some musical theater-type elements… It’s a stage musical after all. But a lot of the themes and the main songs in the show are rock ballads and they’re quite different from a lot of classical musical theater. People might be bopping in their seats a little more than they might if they saw Oklahoma.”

“The plot circles around a British show factory that’s running on hard times and instead of making men’s shoes, they start making high-heeled boots for drag queens and mayhem ensues,” Bow said.

But within that mayhem, Bow said, there’s an important message.

“One of the repeated phrases in the show is, ‘You can change the world if you can change your mind,’ and there’s these two vastly different lead characters in the show who don’t seem to have a ton in common on the surface,” he said. “In getting to know one another, talking to one another, and spending time together when they normally wouldn’t, they discover that they have way more in common than they ever thought. I think that’s the beautiful message of the show — when we take some time to get to know other people, even though they may not look like us or sound like us, we tend to understand the human connection with them way better.”

Despite being a “feel-good story,” Bow said Kinky Boots tends to hit home with a lot of actors and audience members alike — himself included.

“There’s something about the way it was put together and the heart behind the story that just resonates with people. It’s a feel-good story, which everybody always wants to see, and it speaks to a lot of different people in that it’s about parental relationships, it’s about responsibility and it’s also about accepting yourself, flaws and all,” Bow said. “The show certainly resonated with me, personally, even as an actor. I didn’t have any other artists in my family, so it was definitely a challenge for me when I decided this is what I wanted to do with my life… And that’s really what the plot centers around — not only with Lola, the drag queen character, but Charlie, the son of the factory owner. He’s not sure what he wants to do with his life and is sort of pushing away from the family business. All of us need to decide what it is we’re going to do with our lives and the challenge of needing to prove that to our parents, our siblings, our friends and our teachers. I like doing this show because it definitely resonates with my experience and I think a lot of people’s experience of just being confident in what you want to do and moving in that direction, despite the fact that it may be unconventional.”

Kinky Boots will hit the Weidner stage on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m.

Visit weidnercenter.com/broadway-in-green-bay to learn more and to purchase tickets.