The move by the Tonys seems strange since the three boys rotating the lead of "Billy ElliottheMusical" David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish all took home a joint best actor Tony in 2006.
It has been nominated again this year and is up against BillyElliottheMusical, The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award - the only Olivier voted for by the public.
"It would be easy to call it the best British musical since BillyElliot, but that, I'm afraid, would be underselling it, " said Richard Zoglin in TIME Magazine.
The "Kinky Boots" haul did not match the record number of nominations for a musical, which is 15, set by "The Producers" in 2001 and "Billy Elliot" in 2009.