Lauper & Fierstein's KINKY BOOTS Set for January Reading

As previously reported, Cyndi Lauper is writing the music and lyrics for KINKY BOOTS - The Musical, with a book by Harvey Fierstein, and Jerry Mitchell as director/choreographer. Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig are on board as producers and Stephen Oremus will be the musical supervisor. 

BroadwayWorld.com has learned the musical will hold a January reading in New York City, for which casting is already under way. 

In June, the NY Daily News reported: "Lauper is writing the songs for a musical by Harvey Fierstein, based on the British cult film "Kinky Boots." Naturally, the plot involves something edgy: two men who make boots for transvestites. That dovetails with Lauper's seeming life-long identification with outsiders, which begs the million-dollar question: Why does she connect to that role so deeply? "Cuz I was always outside," she says. "And when you're hanging around outside, you start to see the other people that are outside."

In 2008, it was announced that "Kinky Boots" was being developed as a Broadway-aimed musical by producers Daryl Rothand Hal Luftig. Producer Roth told the Hollywood Reporter that "the story is really about relationships, and I want to find the heart at the center of it."

Lauper achieved success in the mid-1980's with the release of her album She's So Unusual, and became the first female signer to have four top-five singles released from one album. She has released 11 albums and over 40 singles, and as of 2008 has sold more than 25 million records worldwide. She appeared on Broadway in the 2005 revival of The Threepenny Opera as Jenny, and recently appeared as a competitor on The Celebrity Apprentice.

"Kinky Boots" is a 2005 Golden Globe Award-nominated British-American comedy film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, about a traditional Northampton  shoemaker, based in Earls Barton, who turns to producing fetishism footwear in order to save the failing family business and the jobs of his workers. The film is based on the story of Divine, which was featured in an episode of the BBC documentary series Trouble at the Top.

Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) is trying to save the family business and travels to London to get ideas. In a chance encounter he meets sassy drag queen performer Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the alter ego of Simon, and sees the possible market of shoes for male transvestites. With the styling eye of Lola, Charlie leads the traditional shoe factory to design and produce numerous shoes for the catwalk in Milan, Italy.