“I like being looked at, and you like to look,” declares the lead character Lola during her fantastical entrance number “Land of Lola.” It’s difficult not to want to gaze at the vibrantly painted faces of Lola and her fellow drag queens, known as the Angels, or even the more demure visages on display in the Tony Award-winning musical “Kinky Boots.”
Each look was created by Jeff Knaggs, who has been designing makeup and hair full-time since 2015; he previously toured as part of the makeup teams of shows like “Young Frankenstein,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Fun Home.” And while “Kinky Boots” debuted on Broadway in 2013, Knaggs’ designs for the current tour are new. “The design for this tour actually came from my original designs for the Norwegian Cruise Line production,” Knaggs told Broadway News. “There are some similarities to the original design, as I am still designing makeup [coordinated with] the original Broadway costumes, but these stop at color choices.”
Lola still glimmers in her signature ruby and the Angels don vibrant shades from fuchsia to cobalt, so the colors in Knaggs’ design — gold eyeshadows, pink lipsticks — still complement those outfits. But the accentuated features, contouring and precise shading, are a custom collaboration between Knaggs and each actor.
“If I am doing basic show makeup or basic glam makeup, I will experiment on the face as I go, having an idea in my head of what I want it to look like,” Knaggs said of his process. “For anything more specialized, like ‘Kinky Boots,’ I will sketch up a full face chart to start with, and then work on applying those shapes to the face.” Just as with other design disciplines, in which artists illustrate their ideas before they are constructed, so too does Knaggs. Instead of a costume sketch or set elevation, he maps his makeup plans onto a face chart.
Still, “there is always a step of experimentation, no matter what the design is,” Knaggs added. “Every face is different, and the goal is to tailor the design to the specific face.”
The makeup not only has to suit an actor’s face, but it needs to communicate the story of the character they play. And in “Kinky Boots,” there are two realms that characters inhabit: that of a blue-collar shoe factory and the world of drag. “Designs for Charlie, Lauren and Nicola are based in their characters’ reality,” Knaggs explained of the more workaday roles. But, “for example, Nicola has a much more refined palette because she is trying to rise above her upbringing. Lauren is a bit more pedestrian and simple, as she’s resigned to be as she has always been. Lola and the Angels are a different story, as they are creating an image of who they want to be — not reality.”
Here, Knaggs offers the storytelling logic behind a few key makeup designs you’ll see onstage in “Kinky Boots.”
