Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Kinky Boots’ Nabs 13 Tony Nominations

A fabulous drag queen edged out a precocious little girl with special powers this Tuesday morning, when nominations for this season's Tony Awards were announced.

Accoerding To USAToday, the homegrown musical Kinky Boots, with a book by Harvey Fierstein and a score by first-time Broadway composer Cyndi Lauper, earned 13 nods, the most this year and one more than the critically celebrated British import Matilda the Musical.

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The plot is based on a small British film, of the same name, about Charlie (Stark Sands) who inherits his father’s failing shoe factory and teams with Lola (Billy Porter), a black drag queen, to design a line of flashy boots for cross-dressers. Together, they save the factory. Along the way, we get a lot of completely expected messages about being true to yourself, “overcoming prejudice and transcending stereotypes.”

Reviewer James Cooper cites Cyndi Lauper’s extensive career in hard-driving pop music (starting with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” in 1983) and her extensive performing in MTV videos and concerts has made her an influential pop musician for more than 30 years.  He writes it is her musical style that makes “Kinky Boots” a hit.

Lauper’s first attempt as a Broadway composer has received high praise for her hard-driving songs. The New York Times called her songs “audience hugging,” and while Variety noted that her lyrics don’t always make a lot of sense, she has written a number of musical showstoppers.



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