"Red is sexy, sexy all by the little heel. From London to Milan, small heels are the trend. ”
Broadway musical "Queen of Boots" is being performed in Shanghai Cultural Square, when a group of big men wearing long skirts, stepping on red boots singing and dancing, but also split forks, flip heels, the figure is comparable to a supermodel, you can't help but sigh: the original men can also be so sexy!
Based on a true story, "Queen of Boots" tells the story of two small people counterattacking: the rich second generation of the shoe factory Charlie met the "drag queen" Lola by chance, and the two slowly changed from rejection and quarrel to close friends, and together they designed high heels that could bear the weight of adult men, and finally shined on the Milan catwalk, and the old shoe factory was revitalized.
Stills from this article are provided by the organizers
Six Tony Awards, three Oliver Awards, one Grammy Award... Lola, the protagonist of Queen of Boots, is very marginal, and the story based on her has been a great success in mainstream culture.
This musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2013, has the typical Inspirational and positive energy of the American style: you can't change the direction of the wind, you can adjust the sails; you can't control the weather, you can adjust your mood; no matter what others think, you have to be brave to accept yourself and be yourself.
Lola, played by black actress Joshua Banks, is undoubtedly the most popular and eye-catching one.
Insisting on wearing women's clothing, insisting on being a woman, Lola is humorous and funny on the surface, but behind it there are all kinds of heartaches and difficulties: the father does not understand why he is a strong man who wears high heels, and the straight men around him are laughing all the time.
A dumb voice, dark skin, and a strong body, Joshua Banks interpreted Lola into a thousand styles, and also let people know how much pressure to resist and how much effort to persevere in being themselves.
How to break through the self to play this role? Let's hear what Joshua Banks has to say.
The Paper: How did you take over Lola?
Banks: Before I got the role, I had three years of sitting on the cold bench. I've tried competing for many different roles, I've been in different crews, I've worked as a costume designer in the crew, and I didn't get the role I wanted the most, but I didn't want to give up. When lola started recruiting actors for the role, I felt that it was a good fit for me, so I participated in the competition with confidence. I worked as Lola's Cover for three years, and then through continuous practice, I finally got the A corner of the tour, and this experience was very valuable and unforgettable for me.
The Paper: How do you personally understand Lola?
Banks: Lola is a very expressive person, who can amaze the audience everywhere she goes, very confident, full of charisma. She is the embodiment of compassion, strength, beauty, wisdom and complexity. She's human, flawed, but real, and these bring me to the center of the character. I was touched by her courage to be herself, and the story of her father who never understood to reconciled also resonated with me.
The Paper: You once said that you and Lola have a very similar personal story, which makes you have a certain connection with Lola and it is easy to enter her world.
Banks: I acted in musicals in high school and loved to sing, but it was easy to get stage fright. I studied musical theater and costume design in college and have been a professional designer and performer for the past 7 years.
I've always had dreams of musical theater, but the academic training didn't seem to suit me very well. I watched a lot of Broadway and other musicals, and I also worked as a costume designer in the crew, and I have always tried to learn and observe in the front line of the industry, and strive to form my own style. This experience is actually very similar to Lola, because we are all the kind of people who "don't go the usual way", but in the end we all find the self we want to be.
The Paper: Your figure is tall and toned, before the performance, did the director make any requirements for your body, such as fitness and weight loss? After all, this is a feminine character who wears a skirt and high heels, and your figure is too strong...
Banks: That's a very interesting question. When you go to the theater and see Queen of Boots, you'll really know Lola. Although this is a "drag queen" role setting, but in fact, the skirt and high heels are only external performances, Lola is a very strong and confident person at heart, once a professional boxer, so such a figure is Lola's figure. "Queen of Boots" hopes to convey a concept that transcends gender and self through this contrast between inner, physical and external performance.
The Paper: Playing Lola to wear skirts, boots, high heels, have you ever twisted, how to adapt to this feminine dress?
Banks: Definitely not very comfortable at first, especially in high heels. So from the beginning of rehearsals, we would wear high heels for more than 10 hours a day, wear them to eat, buy things, and even go to the bathroom. From standing firm to being able to walk with your head held high to dancing in high heels, the whole process took about two months.
The Paper: The heels in the play are very high, have you ever been injured during rehearsal performances?
Banks: There have been, including a few of our Angels, who had to run and jump in high heels and even dance on the conveyor belt, which was a challenge at first, sometimes with some stumbling blocks, but the crew had physiotherapists regularly do massage and conditioning for us. After two months of rehearsal, we were finally able to master it.
The Paper: Not only clothing and makeup, Lola also has to get closer to women in body language, such as twisting her hips, and her temperament is also charming, how do you find this feminine feeling?
Banks: I've seen the movie and the Broadway premiere over and over again, and I felt very much like to challenge the role. When I started trying to perform Lola, I observed the behavior of female friends every day in my life, and I also watched the cross-dressing TV show "Rupaul Drag Queen Show", went to the bar to see the real drag queen, tried to understand them, and felt their lives. Drawing inspiration from various places, coupled with constant speculation, I tried to perform Lola with her own style.
The Paper: Have you ever met a drag queen in your life? What is the attitude of Americans towards such rebellious and alternative personalities, more discrimination or more understanding and tolerance?
Banks: I have encountered in life, and there will be some more conservative people who do not understand, but more people still understand and tolerate more, just like the spirit that "Queen of Boots" wants to convey, encouraging everyone to be themselves, and also hope that everyone can accept people who are different from themselves. The United States is a pluralistic society, especially chicago and New York, where I live, are cosmopolitan metropolises, and I meet different people from all over the world every day, and the city is full of equality and tolerance.
The Paper: How many performances of "Queen of Boots" have you performed? Wouldn't it be boring to repeat the same performance hundreds of times?
Banks: I played Lola in all states for nine months, performing more than 200 shows in 78 cities and 35 states. It's not a challenge at all, it's easy to keep the character fresh and alive because that's her. Lola is on her toes and doing her own, and I keep reminding me that I'm angle A because she doesn't have a B corner. When performing, I would leave my personal troubles out of the door and completely dive into the characters.