Wayne Brady: How I'm learning to walk in heels for "Kinky Boots"
Wayne Brady is gearing up to star in Broadway's "Kinky Boots," but first, the Emmy-winning actor needs to learn how to walk in high heels.
It's going to take some practice, he says.
"I'm buying a pair of ... heels ... because I have enough time right now that I can actually walk around my house and dance around. I don't want to show up for rehearsals in November and just learn to put on heels," Brady told CBS News.
Nope. Brady, who was last seen on Broadway over a decade ago in "Chicago," wants to show up fully prepared to play cross-dressing Lola in the Tony Award-winning musical this fall.
The 43-year-old star will follow Broadway's original Lola, Billy Porter, who has done more than 800 performances at New York's Al Hirschfeld Theatre. "Kinky Boots" is based on a 2005 British film about a British shoe factory on the brink of ruin that turns into a maker of shoes for drag queens. It features songs written by Cyndi Lauper and a story penned by Harvey Fierstein. Not to mention drag queens in 6-inch heels.
Brady, though, says his "Kinky Boots" can't be simplified to just drag queen.
"If you wanted to be silly and throw on a wig, that's your own deal, but this role itself is so deep because it's this guy who is a British, a former amateur/pro boxer who doesn't live up to his father's dreams -- so [he] dresses in drag and gets his singing and dancing out at night, at this night club. And he's this fabulous diva. He becomes best friends with this guy and they become shoe moguls...That's awesome just on like three different levels."
In between his high heels-walking practice, Brady will continue filming episodes for CBS' "Let's Make a Deal" in Los Angeles through November. And he'll appear on the upcoming season of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" too.
"You expect it to be funny and you expect it to be made up," he says of the improv-themed show. "It's going into its fourth season now on The CW. It just got picked up again ... and old friends of the show and new fans of the show are flocking to it."
Meanwhile, Brady is working on new music (it's his "first love") and he's developing a sitcom. Plus, he's hoping to create his own role on Broadway some day.
And he's also managed to sneak in time to inspire young minds, recently taking part in Charmin's "Keep it Clean Comedy Show" at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. The showcase gave young comics and budding improv stars, including Brady's 12-year-old daughter, a platform to deliver five minutes of their best clean potty humor routines in front of a live audience. Brady was on hand to host and deliver feedback, with the winner taking home $5,000.
Charmin and Brady, who's serving as a spokesperson, are also encouraging people at home to get involved by tweeting their best clean #PottyHumor jokes to @Charmin. For each tweet received throughout the month of September, Charmin is donating $1 to Ronald McDonald House Charities, up to $10,000.
Brady says he wants to drive home that "you can really be a kid and use your imagination. I tell people no one does improv better than a child."
As for up-and-coming performers, the best advice Brady can give is to just be true to yourself and "what you're doing."
"If you've got one thing that you do incredibly well -- and that you shine and you excel in -- the best thing is to embrace that and to cultivate it because that's what's special about you in a land when everyone wants to be on TV, everyone wants this ... The only guy I can be is me. That's what I try to pass on ... That you need to do you."
With his success, Brady seems to be doing a nice job of doing him. Now he just has to do it in high heels.