Billy Porter knows what it's like to be an overnight sensation. He's done it twice. At least it seemed that way as he accepted the 2013 Tony Award for his stunning star turn as Lola in Kinky Boots. Broadway insiders may have remembered his stop-the-show performance as Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of Grease, but for many of the years after that, he had fallen from the spotlight and eventually into bankruptcy.
"I know what it's like to be black and gay and out in this business. And there wasn't shit for me to do," Porter, 45, said recently from New York. And so there was no hesitation when he was offered a chance to extend his Kinky Boots contract into 2016. "I don't want to be bankrupt anymore. I want to work, and they pay me bags and bags of money, praise the Lord. And it just so happens it's an amazing job that I don't get tired of doing."
However, that new contract provides Porter with a three-month leave of absence beginning next week so he can perform a new nightclub act that will make one of its first stops at Feinstein's at the Nikko on Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Many of the songs will come from Porter's new CD, Billy's Back on Broadway, which is made up of show tunes given Porter's own R&B stamp. With a repertoire that includes "Don't Rain on My Parade," "Everything's Coming Up Roses," and "Luck Be a Lady," most of the songs will be familiar to even casual theatergoers.
"That was really the point," he said. "I found in my creative journey that when you deconstruct a song, the more familiar it is to the lay person, the more interesting it becomes when they have a base of knowledge of what it was originally."
The overriding themes of his musical choices, he said, "are songs of inspiration and empowerment, because I feel like I'm the personification of living that kind of truth while trying to stay hopeful in the lean years. It's a huge lesson I learned on my life toward Kinky Boots, and I just wanted to share that energy."
In Kinky Boots, he plays a cross-dressing entertainer who partners with the owner of a struggling shoe factory in a tradition-bound English city to create high-heel footwear that can support the weight of a man's body. Acceptance and self-forgiveness are major themes in the musical, adapted from a British movie by Harvey Fierstein and with an original score by Cyndi Lauper. (Lauper makes a guest appearance on Porter's new album, for a "Happy Days Are Here Again"/"Get Happy" medley.)
After arriving in New York from Pittsburgh in the 1980s, Porter landed a couple of Broadway gigs that provided a paycheck and little more. Then came his razzle-dazzle performance in Grease singing "Beauty School Dropout" with Little Richard-squared flamboyance. It was a great showcase until it wasn't.
"Don't misunderstand me. My problem was never in stopping the show. Everybody likes to stop the show. My problem was the archetype I represented was that of a clown, someone who audiences experienced as just a one-trick pony. That's why I didn't like showing up at the theater and not having a story. I'm a human being. I'm a black, gay, out man, and if you're not interested in hearing my story, I'm done."
Porter did land a record deal on a major label after Grease, but that also proved an unsatisfying experience. "I've always been out, and that was the problem," he said. "The label wanted me in the closet and I wanted success, so I agreed not to talk about it. But I wasn't running around trying to make people think I was having sexual relations with girls. I wasn't showing up to red-carpet functions with a girl on my arm. I would just show up by myself."
The new album and the upcoming live performances are giving Porter a chance, he said, "to rejoin the concert world with this new adult version of myself, after trying to be a traditional soul R&B artist." He'll launch his v.2 concert persona in high style at Lincoln Center two days before his Feinstein's run, as part of The American Songbook Series that PBS will tape for later broadcast.
And then come April, it's back into Kinky Boots, at least through January of next year. "If someone wants to put me on a TV show, I'll be happy to leave," he said. "But I can't afford to sit around unemployed waiting for my imaginary opportunity. An R&B-singing drag queen on Broadway is not something that happens everyday."
If Porter's at-long-last satisfying success has come frustratingly late, he also sees the wait as necessary. "It couldn't have happened any sooner because I needed to lead a life that would prepare me for the weight of this opportunity," he said. "Everyone told me who I was and what I represented would never work, and yet here we are because I trusted in myself. Besides, how often do you get to do something that not only is entertaining, but has a message, and not only does it have a message, but it's something people actually want to see?"
Billy Porter will perform Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at Feinstein's at the Nikko. Tickets are $45-$60. Call 394-1100 or go to hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins for more information.