Solomon Parker III is ready to fill these ‘Kinky Boots’

But that was before Solomon Parker III, a Silver Spring resident who lived about 15 minutes away on the Olney campus, came in for his audition. A staple of DC-area stages since 2015, the 28-year-old actor was already familiar with the role after under-studying it for a 2020 production at Columbia’s Toby’s Dinner Theater. In addition, shortly after that run, he began performing in drag as his alter ego Echinacea Monroe. And Parker describes the character as “very familiar” when comparing Lola’s complicated past to his own story.

“He came in and he owned the part,” says Loewith, who is also the theater’s artistic director. “It was better than if Billy Porter had come in. He was just great. He had already made such great choices during the audition. He knows the story inside out. It is very personal to him. It’s a role he was honestly born to play.”

Audiences may recognize Parker from his supporting roles in musicals like “Grace” at Ford’s Theater and “The Color Purple” at Signature Theater, but “Kinky Boots” marks the actor’s most prominent starring role. After the start of the performances last week, the flashy production is scheduled for March 26.

Inspired by true events and adapted by playwright Harvey Fierstein from a 2005 movie of the same name, “Kinky Boots” tells the story of a bankrupt English shoe factory that, with Lola’s help, revolves around producing drag queen-friendly high heels. Once Lola is introduced through the raucous cabaret number “Land of Lola,” the confident character opens up as it grapples with issues of identity, homophobia, and family strife on the heartbreaking ballads “Not My Father’s Son” and “Hold Me in Your Heart.”

“I managed to revive Lola because I know these people well,” says Parker. “I am a dark skinned African American male who is very comfortable with their masculine energy. I like it when people see me as a protector. I like it when they say, ‘He’s very strong and he’s got a lot of confidence.’ But my inner child was told to contain my feminine energy. With this process, I want the public, I want the company to feel this inner love that I have for myself, that I have for this community.

Although Parker didn’t get the part of Lola when he auditioned for the production of Toby’s, the experience of underestimating the part and playing one of Lola’s backup dancers left a lasting impression. A few months after that “Kinky Boots” run ended, Parker debuted his drag persona at a Zoom birthday party for fellow actor Jade Jones. Once the coronavirus lockdown ended, Echinacea Monroe — a Parker name derived from the herb singers use to soothe their throats — began performing in clubs, holding fundraisers and taking part in parades.

Parker explains that inhabiting Echinacea is a much more spontaneous experience than the more carefully choreographed performance he delivers as Lola. But living in the skin of Echinacea for nearly three years made Parker all the more connected to Lola’s story. Now he rather describes missing the role – before introducing Echinacea – as a “blessing in disguise”.

“There’s nothing more perfect than Solomon in this role,” said Vincent Kempski, Parker’s “Kinky Boots” co-star and longtime friend. “It’s the easiest thing in the world to play opposite him because I know what he’s giving is very true to his nature and very attuned and in touch with the experiences he’s had in his life.”

That extends to some of Parker’s struggles. In “Kinky Boots”, Lola and her father are estranged after a clash over her womanhood. While Parker makes it clear that his relationship with his own father is less fraught, he acknowledges that “there are certainly major parallels.”

“My dad was absolutely suffocated by the expectations placed on men to be masculine, to hide their emotions and feelings,” says Parker, who notes that his dad didn’t see him perform professionally until he saw a performance of “Grace” last year. attended. year. ‘So him [raising] me, the biggest ball of self-expression and gender expression, … those similarities [between myself and Lola] are so, so clear. I think people will see that in the performance and in the honesty that I can bring to the character.

Looking back at their collaboration over the years, Kempski describes Parker as someone who “always gives the same love, exuberance and energy – and just throws it at you.” Loewith echoes the sentiment, recalling that Parker raised the bar from the first “Kinky Boots” reading by arriving with an infectious enthusiasm befitting his top status. “Every day,” says Loewith, “is fun and joyful and hilarious.”

That mood feels particularly appropriate when you consider that the production is a kind of farewell party. Having previously planned to move to New York in 2020 before the pandemic hit, Parker says he plans to take that long overdue move, seek representation and pursue a Broadway career after “Kinky Boots” closes .

As someone whose Instagram biography reads “future EGOT winner,” Parker is unsurprisingly ambitious.

“I’ve come to a point in my life where I love theater, and I’ve given it 100 percent and will continue to do so,” says Parker. “But I’m also moving to invest in other parts of my life, to find other cultures, to grow my amazing community, to challenge myself. It worries me, but I would be doing myself and everyone who believes in me a disservice if I didn’t go to the concrete jungle where dreams are made.”

Olney Theater Centre, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd. 301-924-3400. olneytheater.org.