What happens when the owner of a struggling shoe factory meets a drag queen?
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The musical Kinky Boots has the answers.
Free-Rain Theatre Company is presenting the Canberra area premiere of Kinky Boots, with book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, whose hits included Girls Just Want To Have Fun.
The show was nominated for 13 Tony Awards in 2013 and won six, including best musical.
Producer Anne Somes said: "It's got a charming story about diversity, acceptance and taking people for what they are as opposed to taking them at face value.
"It's full of life and vitality and the choreography [by Michelle Heine] is terrific," she said.
Based on the 2005 movie, Kinky Boots focuses on two very different sons who've had difficulty dealing with their fathers' expectations for them.
Northampton resident Charlie (played by Martin Everett), whose fiancee Nicola (Hannah Lance) has ambitions for them in London, reluctantly inherits Price & Son, which has been in the family for generations.
He discovers it is on the verge of bankruptcy and seeks a way to turn business around so the workers' jobs will be saved.
While seeking advice from a friend in London who's also in the shoe business, he comes to the aid of drag queen Lola (Rania Potaka-Osborne), who is being attacked by two drunks.
Afterwards, Charlie discovers the high-heeled boots Lola and other drag artists wear are of poor quality.
Could producing better boots for this niche market save the factory?
And what obstacles might stand in the way?
Potaka-Osborne, who studied dance and has been a backing dancer on The Voice, said Kinky Boots was his first musical and encouraged him to audition for more.
But, he said "it's my third or fourth time in drag - I've done it for corporate gigs and for the parade of the Mardi Gras."
He said the main challenge of drag performing was "definitely the body - you've got to hide all the man but keep the curves and keep the poise".
Playing Lola, he said he had to project "confidence and colour" and "turn it up". But playing Simon, who is Lola offstage, is quite different.
"He's a complete contrast to Lola - he lacks her confidence and her attitude."
Simon, he said, was trained by his father to be a boxer but was eventually disowned when his true nature emerged.
Accepting Simon/Lola is one of the challenges for Charlie - and his workers - to meet.
Everett, who studied at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney, said Charlie "likes to think he is a very fair man" but his life experience does not include drag queens.
"He has hang-ups about certain types of people he has to overcome."
Charlie also has to decide what he wants to do with his life.
Does he want to pursue wealth in the city with his fiancee or will he stay at home and follow in the family tradition if the shoe factory can be revitalised?
Everett was studying arts at university in Sydney but the allure of music and theatre proved to be too strong to ignore.
His previous shows include the new Australian musical Ned, in which he played Steve Hart, one of the Kelly gang, and a production of Much Ado About Nothing performed in pubs.
He played Claudio in the latter and said some of the character's less sympathetic behaviour provoked a strong response from the audience: "Kick him in the balls!"
Here's hoping his role in Kinky Boots doesn't elicit the same response.
Kinky Boots is on at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre until July 28. For ages 15+. theq.net.au.