CHICAGO (AP) – The New York-bound musical “Kinky Boots” enjoyed a pre-Broadway run at a downtown Chicago theater this fall, but only after the state of Illinois lured producers with something that’s scarce these days – money.

The Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein production that’s based on a 2005 movie, along with a second musical, “Big Fish,” were the first to apply for a certificate making them eligible for a state theater tax credit. Lawmakers slipped it into a package of tax breaks approved late last year for corporate heavyweights Sears Holding Corp. and the CME Group Inc.

The breaks appear to be doing their job: Producers say the credit – worth up to $500,000 per production or a cap of $2 million per year – was instrumental in their decision to bring the shows to Chicago instead of going straight to New York or previewing in Seattle, Toronto or San Francisco.