‘Kinky Boots’ dances into the Forrest Theatre

Broadway hit “Kinky Boots” is a lot tamer than you might think, swears Lindsay Nicole Chambers, who plays love interest Lauren in the touring production.

“It’s ‘kinky’ meaning fabulous and different. It’s the British interpretation of the word,” Chambers says. “It’s not as risqué as it sounds — my 87-year-old grandmother came to see it.”

The show, with music by Cyndi Lauper and a book Harvey Fierstein, tells the story of Charlie Price, who inherits his father’s failing shoe factory. He needs to find a way to starting selling shoes stat, before he has to fire off the workers.

Chambers’ character convinces Charlie to go out on a limb. “She challenges him to change the product,” Chambers says. “All the other factories are staying alive by finding a niche market. He needs to too.”

Charlie heads to London, where he meets Lola, a drag queen with a broken heel — and has his “eureka!” moment: He’s going to start making shoes for drag queens, otherwise known as kinky boots.

But the conservative factory town gets turned on its head, as towns do, by the arrival of Lola.

“There is a message to the show. It is about accepting people’s differences – but it’s not a beat-you-over-the-head-with-it message,” Chambers says. “It’s just a fun night. I’ve had so many husbands come up to me after the show and say ‘my wife dragged me here – and it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.’”

Rocking those shoes

“Spoiler alert: Every last one of us in the finale is in a pair of kinky boots,” says Chambers with a laugh. “You do get to see a football player-sized man dancing around in a pair of thigh-high 6-inchers.”

The shoes were custom-made for each dancer, and Chambers says her “sensible little 6-inch red python stiletto booties” are surprisingly comfortable.

As for the guys, they got used to the heels pretty quickly — after a bit of a rough start.

“It’s funny because girls, we’re always in heels. We learn in middle school so we can look cute at the middle school dance,” Chambers says. “But these dudes come in — and we’re talking intense heels: Platform on the bottom, the shortest is probably 4.5 inches. When they started rehearsing in the heels, there was definitely some whining. And some crying.”

“Kinky Boots” is at the Forrest Theatre April 28 through May 10. Tickets are at www.telecharge.com.