Wayne Brady as Lola
Jake Shears as Charlie
Kelly Marie Tran as Lauren

July 8–10, 2022; single tickets on sale Tuesday, May 3, 2022

LOS ANGELES (April 25, 2022) – First casting has been announced for the Hollywood Bowl’s upcoming production of Kinky Boots, featuring Wayne Brady in the role of Lola, Jake Shears as Charlie, and Kelly Marie Tran as Lauren. 

Kinky Boots, the winner of six 2013 Tony® Awards including Best Musical, is the exhilarating Broadway hit that lifts spirits to new high-heeled heights with its Tony-winning music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, uplifting book by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein, and direction and Tony-winning choreography by original director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell. The conductor and musical director is two-time Tony and Grammy® winner Stephen Oremus, the original music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator of Kinky Boots, for which he won the Tony for Best Orchestrations. Kinky Boots also won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.

Kinky Boots, inspired by a true story, will be the 21st annual LA Phil/Hollywood Bowl-produced, fullystaged Broadway musical to be presented at the historic venue. It tells the story of an unlikely friendship built around some very unlikely shoes. Factory owner Charlie is struggling to save his business, and the fabulous Lola has a wildly exciting idea that just might do the trick. Kinky Boots is the huge-hearted story of two people with nothing in common—or so they think.

Kinky Boots will be performed three times at the Hollywood Bowl this summer: Friday, July 8, at 8PM; Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m; and Sunday, July 10, at 7:30 p.m. Subscriptions for the Hollywood Bowl’s 2022 summer season are available at  or via phone order at 323 850 2000; single tickets are available in person and online from Tuesday, May 3, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office and at hollywoodbowl.com. For further details or questions, call 323 850 2000 from 10AM – 6 p.m, daily or visit hollywoodbowl.com.

Multiple Emmy® Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated Wayne Brady has made his mark on stage and screen as an actor, producer, singer, dancer, songwriter and television personality—a true multi-hyphenate. Brady’s career path and personal life journey have helped him see the world in a unique way. The first person to win Daytime and Primetime Emmys in two consecutive years, Brady has an impressive TV resume, including Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Masked Singer, Black Lighting, The Good Fight, and the upcoming American Gigolo, each spotlighting different aspects of his immense talent.

In addition to being a force in front of the camera, Brady is heavily active behind the scenes wearing the hats of host and executive producer for Let’s Make A Deal, Game of Talents, and Comedy IQ, which he also co-created. All of this follows on the heels of the success of his award-winning daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show.

Long an accomplished singer and performer, Brady has cultivated a musical acumen that has always been a personal passion, and he used that passion as fuel to help win the second season of The Masked Singer. Off his victory, Brady dropped a brand-new original single entitled “Flirtin’ w/ Forever,” which quickly climbed the streaming charts, as did an accompanying music video. This follows the success of his debut album, which was headlined by a version of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” that earned him a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.

Brady has also triumphed on stage, starting with his Broadway debut starring as Billy Flynn in the long-running hit musical Chicago. Soon after, Brady starred as Lola in Kinky Boots on Broadway; Brady would later assume his biggest theatrical role to date, headlining as Aaron Burr in the Chicago production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning Hamilton. Brady previously appeared in the Hollywood Bowl production of Rent; later this summer, he appears at The Ford in An Evening with Christopher Jackson and Wayne Brady on August 27.

Recently Brady returned to Broadway as part of Freestyle Love Supreme, working with the production team of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale. The unique show reprises the fusion of hip-hop, improv and comedy that won it a special Tony Award for its innovation and contributions to the world of theater. Earlier this year, he announced he will again partner with the Freestyle Love Supreme team as well as Speechless to create FLS+, a new company committed to making improv globally accessible.

Kelly Marie Tran has quickly become a captivating on-screen and stage presence. Most recently, Tran made history by voicing Disney’s first Southeast Asian Princess with her role as Raya in Raya and the Last Dragon. The film was released to critical acclaim in March 2021. Additionally, Tran has stepped into the role of executive producer on two exciting projects. Firstly, on SXSW’s Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary feature Lily Topples The World. The film follows the life of an American Chinese adoptee who becomes a global artistic force with over one billion YouTube views. Secondly, on Summertime, director Carlos López Estrada’s spoken-word poetry feature film that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.  

In 2017, Tran made her big screen debut in Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi as Resistance mechanic worker Rose Tico, making Tran the first Asian American woman cast in a lead role for the franchise. In 2019, she reprised her role in Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. On stage, Tran recently performed at the Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert alongside Common, Renée Fleming and Barlow & Bear. Additional credits include DreamWorks’ The Croods: A New Age, Hulu’s Anthology drama series Monsterland, and Facebook Watch’s Sorry for Your Loss, among others.

Jake Shears is the frontman and one of the primary songwriters for multiplatinum-selling glam pop band Scissor Sisters. Born in Arizona, Shears grew up in the Seattle area before moving to New York City, where he studied fiction writing at The New School.

Shears and bandmate Babydaddy (Scott Hoffman) formed the Scissor Sisters in 2002. After several years on the electroclash scene in New York (and releasing the hits “Comfortably Numb” and “Filthy/Gorgeous”), the Scissors found major success in Europe, ending 2004 with the biggest-selling album of the year in the UK. The band’s follow-up album Ta-Dah! yielded the UK #1 single “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin,’” which charted around the world and earned them a prestigious Ivor Novello award. The band won three Brit Awards in 2005, including International Breakthrough Act, Group and Album; they have also been nominated for the Grammy for Best Dance Recording.  

Outside of the group, Shears has written hits for Kylie Minogue (“I Believe in You”) and collaborated with Tiga, Andy Bell of Erasure and Boys Noize. Shears wrote the music for Tales of the City, a 2011 stage musical based on Armistead Maupin’s bestselling book series of the same name, and he has previously played the role of Charlie Price in Kinky Boots on Broadway. In 2018, he released his debut book, the memoir Boys Keep Swinging. That same year, Shears released his eponymous debut solo album and continues to work on several projects, both in music and theater, including a musical based on the life of Tammy Faye Baker in collaboration with Elton John that is set to debut in London in 2022. Jake currently divides his time between London and New Orleans.

Jerry Mitchell received the Tony Award for Best Choreography twice—for the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots, for which he was also nominated as Director, and previously for the revival of La Cage aux Folles. Jerry was most recently represented on Broadway as Director/Choreographer of Pretty Woman, now playing on the West End. He directed the Gloria Estefan Broadway musical On Your Feet! and its international tour, recently presented in London’s Coliseum Theatre, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for his choreography in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which he also directed and co-produced in London.

Over 35 years, Jerry has been involved with more than 50 Broadway, West End and touring productions, starting as a dancer for Agnes de Mille in Brigadoon and thereafter assisting Michael Bennett and Jerome Robbins. His Broadway debut as Choreographer, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, was followed by The Full Monty (Tony nomination); The Rocky Horror Show; Hairspray (Tony nomination and the NBC live television broadcast as well); Gypsy; Never Gonna Dance (Tony nomination); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nomination); La Cage aux Folles (Tony Award); Imaginary Friends; Legally Blonde (Tony nomination), which he also directed on Broadway and in London; Catch Me If You Can; and Kinky Boots. He is currently developing a new musical entitled Becoming Nancy. He also choreographed both the Off-Broadway productions and films of Hedwig & The Angry Inch and Jeffrey. Thirty or so years ago, Jerry conceived and created Broadway Bares, a comedy burlesque show performed annually for the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, for which he continues to serve as Executive Producer, as well as inspiring West End Bares, which celebrated its 10th year raising money and AIDS awareness benefiting TERRANCE HIGGINS TRUST.

Stephen Oremus is the recipient of two Tony awards (Best Orchestrations) and two Grammy awards (Best Musical Theater Album) for his work on The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots. For Kinky Boots, Stephen served as music supervisor, orchestrator, and arranger for Broadway, National Tour, and worldwide productions. For The Book of Mormon, he co-orchestrated the score, wrote the vocal arrangements and serves as music supervisor for the Broadway, National Tour, and worldwide productions. Stephen is the music supervisor and arranger of the original Broadway production of Wicked, and of the subsequent productions of this hugely popular musical playing around the world and also of Disney’s Frozen including the Broadway, National Tour and worldwide productions.  He was the music supervisor, vocal arranger, and orchestrator of Avenue Q, for the Broadway, off-Broadway, London, and the National Tour productions. He was the music supervisor, vocal arranger and orchestrator of the Broadway musical adaptation of 9 to 5, with a score by Dolly Parton, and co-produced the Grammy-nominated cast recording. His other Broadway credits include All Shook Up, as music supervisor/vocal arranger/co-orchestrator and High Fidelity, as vocal arranger.

Beyond Broadway, Stephen has arranged/conducted for various artists for Television, Film, and Concert performances including Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Rufus Wainwright, Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Jake Shears, Chaka Khan, and many more. 

Television credits include: Music Director for the 87th Annual Academy Awards (Emmy nomination), Music Director for: Annie Live (NBC), The Wiz Live (NBC), RENT Live (FOX), A Very WICKED Halloween Special (NBC), Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2 (Disney Plus)

Film credits include Arranging/Conducting songs for: Disney’s Frozen, Frozen 2, Sing 2, A Star Is Born, The Hunting Ground, and Shame.

Stephen is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, Boston.

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