Brash, big-hearted, and high-kicking, the hit musical Kinky Boots trots out just the right message of acceptance for these hate-filled times.

Cowritten by 1980s pop-punky icon Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein, the over-the-top musical finally hits Vancouver, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from Tuesday (February 7) to February 12. It tells the story of two guys: Charlie, heir to his father’s Northampton shoe factory, and cross-dressing Lola, who’s been disowned by his/her own dad. Lola and his drag-queen colleagues help Charlie revive his footwear business through male stilettos—“two-and-a-half feet of irresistible, tubular sex”, as the script puts it. The songs are hooky, and there might be no more fitting song for our times than the inclusive final anthem, “Raise You Up/Just Be”.