Cyndi Lauper Reveals KINKY BOOTS Music Inspired by Her Husband & Son
By: Caryn Robbins Jun. 17, 2015
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In a new interview with PEOPLE, Tony Award winner Cyndi Lauper reveals that her original score for Broadway's Kinky Boots was inspired by her son and her husband, David Thornton.
The 'True Colors' singer cites one number in particular, "I'm Not My Father's Son," as an example of how her loved ones helped her compose the music for the hit musical. "When kids are little, they try to be exactly like their dads," begins Lauper. "But in the end, all little boys have to grow up and be the men who they are supposed to be, not the image of what they think their fathers want."
She continues, "I'm Not My Father's Son," is "about unconditional love and about being true to yourself. Not everyone has an ideal relationship with their fathers, and sometimes there is some stuff you can't fix, but even Lola, whose dad rejects him, was able to find some closure with his father in the show."The 61-year-old says even her mother-in-law played a role in inspiring her music, sharing how she "used to tell my husband he had 'the patience of Job,' which I think all good fathers have to have. David is a great dad."
Read the story in full here
Below, watch Lauper's recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show in which she performs her rendition of "I'm Not my Father's Son"
Cyndi Lauper won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Original Score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater for Kinky Boots. With her first album, She's So Unusual, Lauper won a Grammy award for Best New Artist and became the first female in history to have four top-10 singles from a debut album.
Since then, Lauper has released 10 additional studio albums, with her most recent, the Grammy-nominated Memphis Blues, ruling the Billboard Blues chart for 14 consecutive weeks to become the best-selling Blues album of 2010. Overall, during her storied music career, Lauper has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards, 2 American Music Awards, 7 American Video Awards and 18 MTV Awards. Lauper recently captured her journey through music and life in her New York Times Best Selling autobiography, Cyndi Lauper: A Memior. As an actress, Lauper made her Broadway debut in Three Penny Opera alongside Alan Cumming in 2006. She has appeared in numerous television shows, including "Mad About You" (Emmy Award) and "Bones," and films, including The Opportunist with Christopher Walken, Mrs. Parker and the VICIOUS Circle, Life with Mikey, Off and Running, and Vibes. Lauper returns to television in 2013, but this time as herself, in the docu-series Cyndi Lauper: She's Still So Unusual on WE TV. Lauper also continues her philanthropic work through her foundation, the True Colors Fund.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos
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