Early in the 2013 awards season, Kinky Boots did well, receiving Drama League Award nominations for Distinguished Production of a Musical and Distinguished Performance, for both Porter and Sands,[5] and winning for Distinguished Production.[6] The show received nine Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, winning three, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical, Outstanding New Score and Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Porter).[7] The musical received only two Drama Desk Award nominations, however, and only one win: Porter for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.[8]
Kinky Boots received a season-high 13 Tony Award nominations.[4]Matilda, which The New York Times described as the "unalloyed critical hit" of the season, received 12 nominations, 11 of them in the same categories as Kinky Boots.[9] In addition to its critical success, Matilda had won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding musical and had set a record by winning the most Olivier Awards in history.[10] Nevertheless, Kinky Boots won a season-high six Tonys, including Best Musical, which the press described as an upset, and Lauper's win for Best Score made her the first woman to win alone in that category.[11] The creative team are Americans, and reviewer David Cote, an American writing in The Guardian, judged that the show's win was a case of "the balance of love going to a homegrown American musical, Kinky Boots, over the British import Matilda."[12]Kinky Boots also won the 2013 Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting in the Broadway musical category.[13]
Kinky Boots won the award for Best Musical Theater Album at the Grammy Awards in January 2014.[14]