Billy Porter Returns to Pittsburgh for 'Kinky Boots'
The native son will appear at the Benedum Center this month to reprise his Tony Award-winning role.
photos by Matthew Murphy
Billy Porter’s life bears striking resemblances to a musical.
There were humble beginnings growing up in East Liberty, followed by discrimination in the 1980s for being gay. Finally, with song, dance and a lot of initiative, he landed on Broadway at age 21 in the inaugural run of “Miss Saigon.”
He laughs at the comparison.
“That’s hilarious and true,” he says.
So what musical would it be?
“It doesn’t exist yet, but if it existed, it would be ‘Sunday in the Park [with George].’ As well as ‘Kinky Boots.’”
Porter won a Tony Award in 2013 for his portrayal of Lola in “Kinky Boots.” His character, a drag queen, befriends the downtrodden owner of a shoe factory and convinces him to revive his business by creating women’s shoes for men. The show also won the Tony for best musical.
The national tour makes a stop this month at the Pittsburgh CLO, and Porter says he wouldn’t have missed reprising his role in his hometown for anything.
“[Pittsburgh] will always be the love of my life,” he says. “I’m so grateful to have been able to grow up there and for my childhood there and my training and all of the angels that were present for me in very, very difficult times.”
Porter, 45, is a graduate of Pittsburgh CAPA high school and Carnegie Mellon University. He got the gig in “Miss Saigon” the same way he later would obtain the role in “Kinky Boots.”
“I just went to the audition, baby. It’s not brain surgery,” he says. “[For ‘Miss Saigon,’] I picked up the Backstage magazine, I circled the show and I went to another call. I got a call back, I went to another call, I got the call back and I went to another call back and I got the gig. There’s nothing else but that.”
He went on to appear in “Five Guys Named Moe,” “Grease” and “Smokey Joe’s Café” on Broadway. He also produced a self-titled album. But he kept hitting walls.
“You couldn’t be gay in the music business,” he says. “And not only could you not be gay, but people would say to me, ‘Don’t talk. Don’t speak. Because they’ll know [you’re gay].’ You don’t realize how damaging that is to the psyche. I literally lost my voice and could not sing for a number of years. I knew I had to rediscover my voice and have the courage to speak from that place. And that’s what has happened, and I’m thrilled.”
Porter was away from Broadway for more than a decade.
“I left it all behind with the knowledge and understanding that being in the front and being a star, and I put that in air quotes because who knows what that means and who cares,” wasn’t worth the personal cost, he says. “It became more about what is the work about, what do I have to say.”
Since winning the Tony, Porter says certain aspects of life have gotten a lot easier.
“I didn’t have a place to live for years. I had to file [for] bankruptcy. It was not good,” he says. “But now it’s like everything has cracked open. It’s that tipping-point thing where all of the energy I put in, all of the hours I put in, all of it kind of is bubbling over. Everything is on my terms.”
In the past few years, Porter has directed numerous stage productions, written a semi-autobiographical off-Broadway play, “While I Yet Live,” recorded more albums, won a Grammy Award for “Kinky Boots” and starred in PBS’ “Billy Porter: Broadway & Soul — A Lincoln Center Special.”
“I’m firing on all cylinders, honey,” he says.
So where is his focus right now?
“I walk through the door that’s open,” he says. “If it happens to be a TV show, I’m walking through it. If it happens to be a recording contact, I’m walking through it. If it’s television, if it’s film, if it’s producing, I’m walking through it, because there’s no reason for me not to.
“To be myopic is something other people put on you. I don’t accept that. It’s thrilling for me, to not be.”
"Kinky Boots": Aug. 4-9; Benedum Center, 237 Seventh St., downtown; 412/456-6666, pittsburghclo.org
