On a recent afternoon at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco is on the verge of collapse.
It’s not because of any rock ’n’ roll-related excess. He’s merely rehearsing for his stint as Charlie Price in the Cyndi Lauper-scored musical “Kinky Boots,” which begins Friday and goes through the summer.
He’s practicing the scene where his character, a shoe-factory owner, breaks in his knee-high boots for the first time, before stumbling like Bambi, and hitting the stage with a clumsy face-plant.
But as the 30-year-old explains after rehearsals are done, it’s actually one of the hardest parts of the show to get right. “I’ve worn heels before,” he says. “The first time was when I was 10. My sister and I had a dress-up box and I tried them on — they felt kinda nice! So the faking of the fall is a little tough, because it feels so natural.”
Urie is following in the more flat-shoed footsteps of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong by momentarily leaving the punk and alternative music world for Broadway. But for the Utah-born Urie, — who has dreamed of being on the Great White Way since he was a kid, and who has long injected a theatrical flamboyance to Panic! at the Disco’s live shows — Broadway is more of a natural step than “American Idiot” was for Armstrong.
“People asked me if I was sure I wanted to do this instead of touring more with Panic!, but I’ve been waiting to do this for so long. It was a no-brainer. This is not about making money, it’s about doing something I’m passionate about.”
Urie, who is happy to admit he enjoys a drink and a smoke on the road, isn’t concerned about Broadway being too dramatic a lifestyle change, either. “On the first day I met the cast, one of the members said to me, ‘Oh hey, it’s nice to meet you. Sorry if I seem a little loose — I just had a double shot of tequila!’ I thought, ‘I’m gonna get along with you guys really well!’”
His participation in “Kinky Boots” was first floated 2 ½ years ago when Lauper suggested Urie as a possible cast member to producer Hal Luftig.
“I’ve been a fan of Panic! at the Disco since I heard (the 2006 Billboard Top 10 hit) ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies.’ ” Lauper tells The Post via e-mail. “Brendon’s got it all. He’s got a great voice, and I knew based on Panic!’s live shows that Brendon would totally ‘get’ theater — and he does.”
Lauper is just one of the Las Vegas-based group’s small band of fiercely loyal fans who have followed them since their 2005 debut album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.” But Panic! at the Disco’s underground support swelled in 2016, with their fifth release, “Death of a Bachelor” — a gloriously baroque rock album with several nods towards Urie’s love of Frank Sinatra. It landed them their first No. 1 album, saw them convert a new generation of fans, and culminated with a spectacular show at Madison Square Garden in March.
But the added attention for Urie also came with some problems. After years of happily receiving (and responding to) fan mail and getting gifts sent to his home address in Los Angeles, Urie found himself subject to pranks and even the occasional unwanted visitor. “People started ordering pizzas for us and sending them to my house,” he says. “One time my wife answered the door and it was a fan who must have jumped a locked gate to get to the front door. It just started to feel inappropriate and unsafe, so we had to move.”
Since moving to New York for “Kinky Boots,” Urie has had no such problems. “I got stopped the other day by my apartment,” he says. “There was a quick interaction, but then he went about his day. That’s what I love about this city. Everyone’s always going somewhere else. There’s no time to stop!”