'Kinky Boots,' Musical Mixing Fetish and Family Business, Leads Tony Nominations The flamboyant new Broadway show about reviving a family shoe business by catering to drag performers today earned 13 Tony nominations.

By Jenna Goudreau

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Kinky Boots, the new Broadway musical about a drag queen who helps rescue a family business, dominated today's Tony nominations. It racked up 13 nods across categories, including best musical, director and score. With music from pop icon Cyndi Lauper and book by award-winning writer Harvey Feirstein, the production follows protagonist Charlie Price as he tries to save his family business.

While the backdrop of the play might be edgy for some, with its cross-dressing and fetish footwear, its themes will be familiar to many entrepreneurs and business owners. Price, played by best-actor nominated Stark Sands, suddenly inherits his father's floundering shoe factory and must devise a plan to save it from bankruptcy. To turn the factory around, he partnes with a drag queen named Lola to create a successful line of high-heeled boots for drag performers.

Kinky Boots is based on a 2005 British film with the same name and is showing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, N.Y.

Related: A Luxury Shoemaker's Surprise Family Business

Jenna Goudreau is a senior editor at Business Insider and oversees the Strategy, Careers, and Your Money sections.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

'Pre-Boarding Scam': Customers Furious at Southwest Airlines After 20 Passengers Ask For Wheelchair Assistance to Board

A viral tweet is slamming the airline's wheelchair policy for boarding and disembarking.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Growing a Business

My Profitable Company Is Worthless to Investors — Here's Why That Works in My Favor

My business is profitable, stable and 25 years strong — but it has no transferable value. Here's why some successful companies just aren't built to sell and why that's not always a problem.

Business News

Anthropic Is Now One of the Most Valuable Startups of All Time: 'Exponential Growth'

In a new funding round earlier this week, AI startup Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation.

Science & Technology

How AI Is Turning High School Students Into the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

As AI reshapes education, students are turning school problems into products and building the future economy.