Entertainment

You’ll get a kick out of ‘Kinky Boots’

There are few things theatergoers love more than musicals about persistence and self-acceptance. Cyndi Lauper’s taken those themes to heart, too, in songs such as “True Colors,” so it’s no surprise that her first score, “Kinky Boots,” finds her at ease on Broadway.

And since Lauper teamed up with book writer Harvey Fierstein, the man behind “La Cage aux Folles,” rahrah empowerment gushes out of the likable but heavy-handed show as if from a broken pipe.

The story hews closely to the 2005 British movie of the same name. Charlie (Stark Sands, “American Idiot”) inherits a failing shoe company from his father and realizes he must come up with something new. After catching a drag-queen show, he hires its star, Lola (Billy Porter), to design flashy, highheeled boots— for men.

Lola’s advice is simple: “You’re going to have to start manufacturing sex. Two-and-a-half feet of irresistible tubular sex.”

To make sure the message is clear, Lola leads “Sex Is in the Heel,” one of the best numbers devised by Jerry Mitchell, doing double-duty as director/choreographer (he did the dances in the 2004 revival of “La Cage”). Another is “Everybody Say Yeah,” which involves the cast jumping on and off conveyor belts. It’s pretty amazing to see what these guys can pull off in costume designer Gregg Barnes’ flamboyant footwear.

But it’s not all campy fun, and our heroes face obstacles on their way to the Milan shoe expo, where they hope to find buyers for their goods.

Charlie bickers with girlfriend Nicola (Celina Carvajal) and goes through a phase where he acts like a jerk for no good reason.

As for Lola, she faces off with some employees of the factory, located in gritty Northampton. Keeping the original English setting may have been a bad idea, as the actors’ accents go in and out. Porter doesn’t even try, though he brings a finely calibrated balance of butch realness and forlorn vulnerability to Lola—turns out, the two leads have father issues.

Eventually—spoiler alert!— everything ends well, and self-acceptance triumphs in Lola’s “Hold Me in Your Heart,” a torchy 11 o’clock number that might as well be subtitled “And I Am Telling You I Am What I Am.”

More biting, and fun, is “The History of Wrong Guys,” sung by an electric Annaleigh Ashford (who was the best thing in the recent “Rent” revival). As one of Charlie’s factory workers, who’s long had a crush on her boss, she commits a Grand Theft Solo with a sidesplitting review of bad choices at bad times.

This character-driven song indicates Lauper’s natural knack for musicals, and the more high-energy numbers suggest that someone on Broadway—a place where rock is still vaguely suspicious— has heard that crazy dance music the kids seem to love.

If the show’s about people coming into their own, Lauper’s leading the pack.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com