Cyndi conquers Broadway

Given how they started out as exciting chart rivals 30 years ago, I am curious to know what Madonna is thinking of Cyndi Lauper right now. The She’s So Unusual pop diva has not only conquered American theater with Kinky Boots, she was also granted total, unconditional acceptance by Broadway with a Tony award for writing the words and music of the 15-song score of the musical.

Cyndi and Madonna both made their album debuts in the year 1983. Both also had hit singles on their first time-out, Holiday for Madonna and Girls Just Want To Have Fun for Cyndi. Both went on to more hits and other successes. Among Cyndi’s big-sellers were Time After Time, She-Bop, All Through The Night, True Colors, Change Of Heart, Money Changes Everything, Hat Full Of Stars and I Drove All Night.

Cyndi has also acted in films, TV shows and on stage, written her autobiography and championed gay and lesbian rights. Now with Kinky Boots, she has become one of the very few artists to win a Grammy, Best New Artist for She’s So Unusual; a TV Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Mad About You; and now her very own two Tony awards. Take note that Madonna still has to make her mark in theater.

With a book by Harvey Fierstein, Kinky Boots was based on a British movie of the same title. It tells the story of a young man set to inherit a bankrupt shoe factory. Desirous of saving the factory and the jobs of many, he adopts the suggestion of also manufacturing kinky footwear for drag queens instead of just their usual dress shoes for men. He finds a willing partner in the drag queen Lola who not only provides them with the clientele but whose big heart and spirited personality gets everybody working happily and the factory off to success.

Kinky Boots is Cyndi’s first attempt at a musical and she really nailed it. Aside from her Best Original Score Music and Lyrics for the Theater, the show also won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Billy Porter, who plays Lola; Best Choreography, Jerry Mitchell; Best Orchestrations, Stephen Oremus; Best Sound Design, John Shivers; and the biggest plum of all, the Best Musical trophy.

Cyndi also provided the Tony Awards show one of its most touching moments when she sang, True Colors, one of her biggest hits playing an Appalachian dulcimer in the In Memoriam portion. It was one of the few quiet moments in a presentation that was literally bursting with pride and joy. At a time of dwindling ticket sales when even some of the nominees were not playing anymore, the 2013 Tonys put on one of the best awards shows ever seen in recent times. 

For one, there was a star-studded guest list such as Sally Field, Liam Neeson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Matthew Morrison, Jesse Eisenberg and Berry Gordy Jr. There was also Tom Hanks, a nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Lucky Guy; Cuba Gooding Jr., a nominee from Trip to Bountiful in the audience; boxing champ Mike Tyson dancing on stage; and the evening’s sentimental favorite, the magnificent 79-year-old Cicely Tyson, who won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her work in The Trip To Bountiful.

The Tony Awards was held on the Sunday evening of June 9 (telecast live out here by Velvet last Monday morning, June 10) at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show was emceed by the wonderful Neil Patrick Harris, the star of the TV show How I Met Your Mother. They should ask this guy to do the Academy Awards. He is one superb entertainer who can look nice, dish out the jokes, sing, dance and do magic — all without missing a breath or offending the audience. But then, they do not really have a lot of song and dance at the Oscars.

Straight plays also reign on Broadway but Broadway will not be Broadway without the song and dance, and this year’s Tonys was a true feast of gorgeous musical numbers. From Neil Patrick’s breathtaking opener that featured almost every show on Broadway nowadays to those excerpts from the war horses like Phantom Of The Opera and Annie, down to Kinky Boots, Motown, Mathilda, Cinderella and Pippin’, which was named Best Revival of a Musical, and many others. It was a fantastic celebration of all that Broadway stands for.