Kinky Boots was just a somewhat-known, British, indie comedy film when the ultra-talented composer/lyricist Cyndi Lauper and book writer Harvey Fierstein decided to make it into a Broadway musical. After it opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in 2013, it made waves among theatergoers, but still kept its underdog status.

But when the musical earned the most Tony Award^® nominations that season, suddenly the underdog started making major headlines. A month later, that little show took home the Tony^® for Best Musical, along with awards for Lauper and Fierstein, a Best Actor award for star Billy Porter, and more—proving that a rock musical about drag queens in an English shoe factory could be a smash-hit.

Those 13 nominations and six wins, says Kinky Boots general manager Aaron Lustbader, were a validation of the hard work the creative team, cast, and crew had put into bringing the show to Broadway. “Each of them was integral to the creation of the show,” Lustbader said, noting that Lauper’s win for Best Score was especially meaningful as she was the first woman to win that award on her own. “That was a landmark moment,” he recalled. (Jeneane Tesori would win the following year for Fun Home.)

According to Lustbader, a Best Musical Tony^® win brings new life to a show, with a huge increase in domestic and international attention. In the few years since those wins, Kinky Boots has spawned a national tour, productions in Toronto, London and Korea, and upcoming productions slated for Japan and Australia. “I’m not saying those things wouldn’t have happened without the Tony Award^®, because many of them were in various stages of development,” Lustbader said. “But the Tony helped in terms of international notoriety. It accelerated those plans.”

Kinky Boots, Lustbader continued, opened in a time of great cultural change—and the Best Musical win reflected the shifting mood of the country as a whole. “The Tony^® was a piece of that cultural movement in terms of what the musical’s themes are about, and how that resonated with what the country was speaking about—and continues to speak about—in terms of equality and acceptance of others,” he said. “Above and beyond anything else, the exuberance and joy the show brings were very much of the moment, and continue to be of the moment in terms of what people are looking for when they come to the theater. The Best Musical win validated that those themes could be primary.”

Perhaps most importantly, Lustbader said, Kinky Boots’ Tony wins and ongoing run (three years and counting) emphasized that the little musical had a big message that resonated with audiences. “It’s got universal themes,” he said. Notably, he added, a new and somewhat surprising audience has emerged. “The show is very appropriate for families,” Lustbader said. “It’s not a children’s show, but it’s very accessible for families.”

Kinky Boots is an incredible example of how the Tony Awards^® can turn a small, quirky, lesser-known show into a blockbuster that’s a hit with audiences of all types.

The 2016 Tony Awards^® will be held on Sunday, June 12, broadcast live on CBS. Several nominated shows are available in the Broadway Collection, including Best Musical nominee School of Rock, and Best Musical Revival nominees Fiddler on the Roof and The Color Purple. Other nominated musicals include American Psycho and Tuck Everlasting.

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