Music Theatre Wichita recruits 98 Degrees star and Broadway veteran for Kinky Boots

One of the best parts about being an artistic director for a company like Music Theatre Wichita, Brian J. Marcum says, is having the power to utilize friends and former colleagues.

In the case of “Kinky Boots,” which opens this week, that means bringing people with a vast history of the show to the Century II stage — as well as a longtime friend and the member of a successful boy band.

“It’s so nice for me to bring these people from my worlds,” Marcum said. “It’s like all the lives of me are coming together.”

Marcum tapped Nathan Peck, whom he knew when both were dance students at Oklahoma City University and who were in MTW productions together in the mid-‘90s, to direct “Kinky Boots.”

Peck has been with the show since it was workshopped in 2012, including a pre-Broadway run in Chicago and its April 2013 opening on Broadway. The show ran for six years — winning six Tony Awards, including best musical, best score for Cyndi Lauper and best actor for Billy Porter, who played Lola — and Peck was dance captain throughout its run.

“Anybody you know who was in the show, I taught,” said Peck, who understudied every role in the ensemble.

Audiences delighted to “Kinky Boots,” based on the British film about a failing shoe factory that is given new life after making specialty footwear for a new clientele — drag queens.

After the closing, Peck said “Kinky Boots” director Jerry Mitchell gave him “the keys to the kingdom” to direct and choreograph the musical at regional theaters. He was signed to direct it for MTW in 2020, but it was delayed because of the pandemic.

Having years of experience with the show gives Peck “a lot of perspective.”

“It definitely allows me to understand how every component in the show fits together, not just the principal players,” he said. “I know what it’s like to be in it, so I know how to move in the space. I know the intention behind what’s happening.

“I was there in its inception, so I have a keen sort of understanding of the way it’s put together – why we’re doing certain things that may not on the surface make sense, but they’re very small details that very surreptitiously feed into the story line,” he added.

Peck said he is keeping the show similar, but adding a few of his own touches.

“Basically the bones of it are the original production, the staging and the choreography, but there’s different things with this company than we were doing before,” said Peck, who is working with eight of Lola’s “angels” – the drag queens at the center of the show – rather than the six on Broadway.

“I played both ends of the spectrum, which gives you a lot of insight and appreciation for what everybody’s doing on stage,” Peck said. “With the angels I’m going to give them little nuggets of knowledge.”

Playing Charlie, who reluctantly inherits his father’s shoe factory, is Drew Lachey, best known for his time with the boy band 98 Degrees.

Marcum has known Lachey since 1996, when Lachey’s wife-then-girlfriend, Lea, was Marcum’s dance partner at a Radio City Music Hall Christmas show in Branson, Mo.

“We’ve known each other for a long time,” Marcum said. “Our kids are great friends, and he and his wife started this great camp in Cincinnati, where they live now, called Lachey Arts 11 years ago. We were some of the original faculty for that and we continue to go back to teach these great kids in Cincinnati.”

They were also both in the cast of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” on Broadway at the same time. Lachey made his Broadway debut in “Rent” as Mark Cohen, performing for seven months.

“Initially I was petrified,” Lachey said of his Broadway debut. “I’ll be honest — I’m petrified every time I go back into that world because I have so much respect for those performers and the dedication they have for their craft. Unless you’ve done eight shows a week and five show weekends and toured, you don’t know what it’s like. In the pop world, if you have four shows a week (and think it’s a lot).”

The band 98 Degrees — which had hits including “Thank God I Found You,” “Give Me Just One Night” and “Because of You” — included Lachey and his reality TV-star brother Nick. He said the group will be celebrating its 25th anniversary of being signed this year, but schedules won’t allow touring this year, but perhaps in 2023.

Lachey said he’s learned a completely different work ethic doing theater.

“I’m 46 years old, and I feel like I’m learning more now than I did in the 98 Degrees heydays of the late ‘90s and early 2000s,” he said. “I’m learning from people who have done a skill and a craft that I respect and appreciate their talents. I come into it humbled and do my best to pull my own weight too.”

Marcum said Lachey’s experience in the pop world benefits him as a theatrical performer.

“When you’re in concerts, you never leave the stage, and it’s like you’re creating all this stamina,” Marcum said. “This is not an easy role at all and he’s doing it very well. That’s a product of doing all this choreography and a two-hour show without stopping.”

In both pop stardom and on stage, Lachey said he’s learned to become a team player.

“I’ve toured all over the world, and it’s given me a perspective and an appreciation for the people I share the stage with, what they contribute, and how I can learn from them,” he said.

It’s Lachey’s first time in “Kinky Boots,” and Marcum said he knew the singer could do the role.

“I’ve known him for a long time in many different incarnations. He’s so good already and he does have the goods,” Marcum said with a laugh. “It’s nice to have friends who can deliver the goods.”

New to MTW is Kenneth Mosley, who plays drag queen Lola after performing the same role for nearly a year on tour, pre-pandemic.

Mosley said he’s seen the themes of tolerance and understanding throughout the show change audience members throughout North America.

“I was able to see how the message of the show really proved to be a uniter in certain communities,” he said. “It was interesting, the different ages of attendees would be equally affected, obviously from different perspectives in a very life-changing way, shifting perspective on people and people who are different from them. I’ve always found that to be fascinating and really fulfilling.”

Mosley said it took some time for him to perfect the drag-queen persona, but he enjoys the challenge of the role.

“We do our watching, our observing, and then we practice, practice, practice walking so we don’t go out and hurt anyone,” he said.

Music director Thomas Douglas said he was impressed by Lauper’s Tony-winning score.

“What I really like in the new shows is that non-theatrical people, in terms of pop singers or pop writers, are writing shows and they bring a real freshness to it,” he said.

‘KINKY BOOTS’ BY MUSIC THEATRE WICHITA

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, July 6-7; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, July 8-9; 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, July 9-10; and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 10

Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $25-$72, from mtwichita.org, 265-3107 or the Century II box office