Anthony Avino has wanted to play an Angel ever since he saw the out-of-town tryouts of “Kinky Boots” when he was in college. The Elmhurst native is finally getting his chance. He is one of the six flamboyant drag characters in the Cyndi Lauper (music and lyrics) and Harvey Fierstein (book) musical at Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Aug. 18-Oct.17.
“I remember seeing the Angels come out onstage and immediately being drawn and mesmerized by these beautiful people being themselves and living their best lives, and exuding this power and energy that sucked me right in,” Avino recalled.
The story of “Kinky Boots” also attracted him. “It touches on a queer character — a character that I’m not sure is necessarily gay — but part of the LGBTQIA+ community,” he said.
Avino recalls the image of the main character as a child, Young Lola, trying on heels for the first time. The actor, who is in his 30s, noted that his mother said he always tried on her heels and makeup.
“It was something that was part of my life,” Avino explained.
He auditioned for a touring company as well as the Broadway production of “Kinky Boot” but, even though he was brought in for callbacks, didn’t get the role.
“I said, ‘One day I’m going to do that,'” he reported. “And now we’re here.”
Avino said that he considers the Angels “the muses, a little bit. The magical creatures that come on and bring all this energy and love and confidence and fierceness. They help you travel through the story and teach you about being true to yourself and loving yourself.”
Avino also serves as dance captain, a role he is taking on for the first time. He will work with the understudies on the intricate dance routines if they need to substitute a dancer for an Angel at any performances.
The performer praised the costumes by Ryan Park, calling them “unreal. I haven’t seen costumes like this in Chicago ever. The audience is going to go insane. I have chills thinking about the things I’ve tried on so far.”
The angels have complete costume and wig changes for each of the many scenes in which they appear.
Avino lives in New York but launched his career in Chicago. “My first year out of college I booked ‘West Side Story’ at Drury Lane in Oak Brook,” said the Roosevelt University BFA musical theatre graduate.
When he was unable to land a part the following year, Avino moved to New York.
“I come here all the time and they know me,” he said. “Technically, I’m a local actor. All my family’s here. When I come back, I stay with my family.”
Avino has performed in “Beauty and the Beast” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Drury Lane.
He got his musical theater start even earlier, though. “One of the first memories that everyone in my family loves to remind me of was me growing up always singing and dancing,” Avino recalled. “They’ve got videos of me singing Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ at every birthday party and whatever.”
Avino did some modeling when he was a child, and performed in all his school choirs and with Elmhurst Children’s Theatre. “Then I went into high school, and did every play you could think of,” he said. He has also taken numerous dance classes since he was young.
“I guess maybe it’s a little bit of my Italian roots,” Avino joked. “We have to be a center of attention.”
He will definitely get a chance to exhibit that trait in “Kinky Boots.”
‘Kinky Boots’
When: Aug. 18-Oct. 17
Where: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora
Tickets: $36-$74
Information: 630-896-6666; paramountaurora.com; audience members must supply proof of being fully vaccinated.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for The Doings.
