I believe “Kinky Boots” is a musical people go to see with much anticipation. There’s something undeniably irresistible about seeing a Broadway number that showcases gorgeous cross-dressing men dancing in heels in a way most women can’t. Playing eight shows every week to an almost always sold-out crowd at the moderate-sized Al Hirschfeld Theatre, the Tony Award-winning musical is obviously very well received.

Which is why, unfortunately, I felt somewhat disappointed for about almost half of the musical.

Don’t get me wrong; it has all the right ingredients for the making of a great Broadway show – a colorful cast with an impressive array of vocal ranges (especially in the case of the “transvestites”) – but that’s precisely why it’s lacking. It’s cheesy. It isn’t groundbreaking, nor is it very deep. Putting it harshly, in terms of complexity, it’s a grown-up’s production of an elaborate high school musical. If you demand from me what I left the show with, I would say that its message is (maybe) that feminine men are ultimately better than masculine men because of their sensitivity.

And that brings me to what saved the show. If not for Lola – the fantastic Billy Porter, who won the Tony for Best Actor by the way – I would’ve probably gone home in a somewhat foul mood. Words cannot describe how he lights up the stage. He simply blows everyone else out of the water with his husky tenor voice, flamboyance, and eye-catching costumes – no offense to the charming lead, Charlie (acted by Stark Sands), who has quite the voice himself. I’m willing to bet that after his first appearance, the entire theatre was just waiting for Porter to come out again. Even when he reverted to men’s garb in order to fit in, he never quite lost his flair, which leads me to believe that he is very much at home in Lola’s shoes, disregarding the fact that he was in six inch stilettos for most of the show. His colorful voice went from powerful in his dance numbers, to soft and sentimental in that ballad duet with Stark Sands in front of the toilet prop, and to soulful and send-a-chill-down-your-spine in that solo scene with the flowy white dress and strobe lights.

I know I said that Charlie had a good voice, but his voice is also part of my disappointment. He has a very boyish voice, which I guess suits his immature character somehow. His voice was thin, such that when his solos finally ended in a full throated belting note, I found myself suspecting whether he was singing live. In fact, from the very beginning, I found myself questioning the perfection with which the ensemble performed their numbers. The cast sounded amazing and the vocals were like something out of a movie. There were no intakes of breath to be heard. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the cast actually lip-synched one or several songs, what with all the dancing they were doing. Be that as it may, I refuse to believe that Porter was lip-synching any of his songs. He’s simply too good.

The choreography – of course I’m talking about Lola and her company of transvestites – struck me as flamboyant, but unoriginal. We’ve seen our fair share of strutting, pointing, arm waving, etc. Admittedly, there was the occasional split – in heels, by a man no less! – that took the audience by surprise. There was also that awkward conveyor belt dance in the middle of that kind of put a damper on things. I’d much prefer watching the ensemble prancing around the stage waving boots in the air than seeing them strut on conveyor belts. There was something very unoriginal about that.

Another flaw that threw me off was the North Hampton accent, or the English accent in general. I’m not a native speaker, but even to my untrained ears, the cast’s accent sounded a bit forced and exaggerated to me. I’m sure they all worked really hard on their accents – maybe it’s something about being on a Broadway stage – but with mikes that transported their voices to all corners of the room, I didn’t see why the actors had to try so hard to enunciate and drag out every sentence.

Of course, Lola wasn’t the only one that was brilliant. Although there are the occasional slow and boring solos (Sands’), the audience is brought to life once again by songs that are sung by the whole cast. Now the solos might be lacking, but when the whole cast sings, it’s a harmonizing force to be reckoned with. One such number is “Everybody Say Yeah.” It’s the highlight of Act I and brought the first act to a close. It also might’ve prevented anyone who was bored – I, for one – from leaving to see what else the musical was going to bring to the stage. I won’t deny that this resounding number made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I even overheard the girl next to me hum the song during intermission. Sometimes, you just have to bow down to power of Cyndi Lauper’s music and lyrics.

A successful show such as this one is not without a certain measure of interaction with the audience. Lola constantly “spoke” to the audience with her deep “mm’s” and pauses; often invoking laughter around the theatre. At numerous points throughout Lola’s numbers, cat calls could be heard here and there. By the end of the finale, the cast got the audience clapping along and standing on its feet with gleeful smiles.

Speaking of the audience, this was a somewhat mature crowd for a Friday night. For a show like “Kinky Boots,” I expected to see a lot of people in their early twenties. Instead, the audience was full of people I perceived to range from late twenties to eighties. Which is interesting, considering the material at hand.

I really want to say that I loved the show. I stepped into the theatre with much expectation, but ended up only partly quenching my thirst. “Kinky Boots” was enjoyable and light-hearted, but it’s doesn’t leave a very deep impression.