From March 5 through April 26, Emmy winner Wayne Brady (Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Let’s Make a Deal) will return to Broadway and step back into Lola’s Kinky Boots.
The game show host, improviser, comedian, and musical theatre actor previously played the role from November 2015 through March 2016. He visited the set of The Daily Show to discuss his return.
“On the surface when I say Lola is a drag queen, immediately there are some people [who make judgments] about the narrative,” he says in the video below. “Whatever you’re thinking is wrong. Lola is a drag queen, but Lola’s a drag queen who is a former boxer and a British former boxer.”
“I’m happy to be a black man playing this role that causes some people to have such problems with it,” Brady explains. “The reason I wanted to play Lola is because I love what Lola stands for: Just be yourself, whoever you are.”
In addition to his turn in Kinky Boots, Brady previously appeared on Broadway as Billy Flynn in Chicago. He also succeeded Joshua Henry in the role of Aaron Burr in the Chicago production of Hamilton.
Read: WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT HAMILTON’S WAYNE BRADY