KINKY BOOTS IN MUSIC CITY: Cyndi Lauper On Composing A Tony Winner

Kinky Boots, the Tony Award-winning musical that brings together four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein, two-time Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell and Grammy Award-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper, makes its way to Nashville's Tennessee Perfomring Arts Center next week for a limited, one week engagement February 3-8.

Kinky Boots opened on Broadway on April 4, 2013, and it continues to play to standing room only crowds nightly at the Hirschfeld Theatre, having recouped its costs in October 2013, after just 30 weeks on Broadway.

Kinky Boots took home six 2013 Tony Awards, the most of any show in its season, including Best Musical, Best Score (Cyndi Lauper), Best Choreography (Jerry Mitchell), Best Orchestrations (Stephen Oremus) and Best Sound Design (John Shivers). The show also received the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Broadway.com Awards for Best Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album.

"Kinky Boots deserved every Tony Award it won. It is a fun, fabulous show with a strong message. This musical shares strong values of friendship, love, and self-identity," says Kathleen O'Brien, TPAC president and chief executive officer. "I absolutely love this show and am proud that TPAC is an investor in the Broadway show as well as the tour."

In Kinky Boots, Charlie Price has reluctantly inherited his father's shoe factory, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Trying to live up to his father's legacy and save his family business, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola. A fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos, Lola turns out to be the one person who can help Charlie become the man he's meant to be. As they work to turn the factory around, this unlikely pair finds that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible and discovers that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your whole world.

First-time Broadway composer Cyndi Lauper, who first conquered the music charts back in the 1980s, recently sat down to talk about her Kinky Boots experience and to share the show's impact on her own life - which provided much of her inspiration as she approached the project.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were your initial influences - is that true or an urban legend? Yeah. Them, and Leonard Bernstein and Peter and the Wolf and Debussy and Tchaikovsky and things that my mother played. And a lot of opera!

Tell me about Kinky Boots - how did it come about? Well, it came to me from Harvey. I'm a huge fan of Harvey and I know him because he's a very strong leader in the LGBT community that I'm a friend and family member of. And then, one time he wanted me to come and sing for him. He was getting an award. And it was really a lovely award; for the work that he did and recognizing and what he did. He wanted me to come and sing and I just got to know him more and more then. And I also sought him out to work on a project that I wanted to do about my relationship with my grandmother and the women in my family.

And we were talking - just the way he looks at things, just the way he views a story, the way he tells a story. And if you're watching Kinky Boots, you can see what a wonderful storyteller he is. And, much to my luck, I was brought into this by him and he's basically put me under his wing. He tells me this, he tells me that. Or even [Kinky Boots director] Jerry Mitchell tells me "I want this, I want that" and I go away and try and do what they want, because I feel that they're great at their craft. And I'm so honored to be working with them - don't tell them, I wouldn't want them to get a big head! No, I'm kidding. I really think they're brilliant.

When you're writing a pop song, you don't have to worry about what some character named Charlie who has inherited a factory is thinking. Or a drag queen... No, no, no, no, no! Whatever story you are doing, you have to worry about. In a pop song you have to be very economical with words. And you have to have your story - a beginning, middle and end - because if the song goes nowhere, well, what are you talking about?

Everybody asks the question about pop songs and theater songs. I just think that, in some ways, they're very similar and in other ways, they're not. You need to be economical, you have to say something simply. I believe you still can have poetry. Now, Harvey believes it has to be in the most stupid, simple terms, but I think he believes in poetry! Me, I've been writing poetry all my life, so I kinda like poetry. It's the biggest collaboration I've ever experienced. How many people are in the band? How many people are onstage? How many people are doing sound? Who's Charlie? Who's Lola? It's a big, big thing. There's an orchestrator. There's everything!

The story spoke to you, right? It's a story about an outsider. You know, I have a kid and I have a husband. And I've watched their relationship now for 15 years. When you're a parent, after a while, you start to see; you start to see when they imitate the father's walk. And you see the two of them walking away and you see the kid walking exactly like his dad. And then you see the year where they don't even want to talk to their dad; it's not cool.

It's funny, I made "Girls Just Want to Be Fun" very famous. Now, I see the other side of the coin. When this came along, the biggest draw was that every parent goes through this and every kid goes through this, and the disappointment for a kid to feel like they failed their parents is so huge, whether you're gay or straight. And the fact that the guy's a drag queen, to me, is inconsequential - except for the fact that he's so different from this factory bloke; that they can come together, overcome their differences, outside and in, for the greater good. And it's based on a true story.

It almost seems like a perfect storm, the three of us coming together at this time, doing this project and all the people who came and worked along with us on this. And I know that Daryl (Roth) called Harvey and Jerry Mitchell to do this and Harvey's brother suggested me. And it seemed like the perfect time.

What were the first songs you wrote? "The Most Beautiful Thing in the World" and "Sex is in the Heel." "The Most Beautiful Thing" is the first thing I embarked on doing. And that I did in the craziest way. In the beginning, I wanted to be by myself. I knew I'd have to bring in a musician, eventually. But I went to some guy with Pro Tools and I started mixing. I studied. I listened, a lot, a lot, a lot. And I took all the things I loved the best and put them together. I loved My Fair Lady, I loved the father. I liked the dance hall feel. That's why I have, "you can tell about a fella from his shoes," because you can! You can tell how they walk, you can tell their style, or that isn't their style. And I could relate to the story. So I started writing the father first and then after the father I wrote - I don't have my phone on me, but I must still have Nicola's (sings) "to new beginnings" on my iPhone.

"I'm Not My Father's Son," is one of the most beautiful songs you've ever written. And it's such a moving moment. Can you talk a little bit about that? Well, they sent Stephen Oremus (music director) to play the chorus for me. And I collaborated with him on it, but I had written the chorus and I was trying to figure out how to play it for him. And I told you, I was walking around the gym, 'cuz I wanted to be alone. And I just started singing [she sings] "I'm not my father's son." And I thought that was so sad. And I thought, "I'm not the image of what he dreamed of." You know? "With the strength of Sparta," 'cuz I kept watching these little boys in hockey and they looked like little Spartans! "And the patience of Job," because my husband has the patience of Job. And then, I thought, "still couldn't be the one/to echo what he'd done/and mirror what was not in me." I didn't know anything yet, except I was lost in my own world. And then I thought it'd be nice if there was just water dripping or a clock ticking, and him say, "When I was just a kid/everything I did was to be like him/under my skin," 'cuz that's what little boys are like, right?

In Kinky Boots, you're dealing with working class people. I am working class. And I understand them. I think the working class people that I grew up watching were very Shakespearean. And I think that all the people in my neighborhood inspired me, because they were shoulda-coulda-woulda people.

Every person who works in that factory, you sort of get a sense of... Yeah, of who they are! They're great actors - that's one thing. They're great and they're funny, but they're human. And they very much look like they could work in a factory. And you should credit Jerry Mitchell for that.

What's beautiful about this piece is it is a Broadway musical - it's very uplifting - the first and second act finales bring such joy to audiences. But the end of the first act, Lola is converting the factory. They're going to church! Because we're all different, we brought what we know in and we all worked together to make it right - to make you laugh and cry. And Harvey is such a good storyteller and so is Jerry. One minute you're bawling your eyes out and the next minute, it's hilarious. So, I think it's a perfect storm and I think I'm just so lucky. And I feel so blessed to be walked through by the Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man! They have a lot of heart and they're great storytellers and I feel very blessed to be among them.

Tickets to Kinky Boots are available online at www.TPAC.org, by phone at (615) 782-4040, and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street in downtown Nashville. For group tickets, call (615) 682-4060.

J. Harrison Ghee takes over the role of Lola just in time for its Music City debut next week. Steven Booth (Avenue Q, Glory Days, Dogfight) stars as shoe factory owner Charlie Price. Ghee and Booth are joined by Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Lysistrata Jones) as Lauren, Joe Coots (TV's Inside Amy Schumer, Full Monty national tour) as Don, Craig Waletzko (Guys & Dolls, Young Frankenstein) as George, and Grace Stockdale in her touring debut as Nicola.

Rounding out the ensemble are Damien Brett, Stephen Carrasco, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Amelia Cormack, Troi Gaines, Blair Goldberg, Darius Harper, Andrew Theo Johnson, Crystal Kellogg, Jeffrey Kishinevskiy, Jeff Kuhr, Ross Lekites, Patty Lohr, Mike Longo, Tommy Martinez, Kenny Morris, Nick McGough, Bonnie Milligan, Anthony Picarello, Horace V. Rogers, Ricky Schroeder, Anne Tolpegin, Juan Torres-Falcon, Hernando Umana and Sam Zeller.

The design team for Kinky Boots includes Tony Award nominee David Rockwell (Scenic Design), Tony Award winner Gregg Barnes(Costume Design), Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner (Lighting Design), Tony Award winner John Shivers (Sound Design), Josh Marquette(Hair Design), Randy Houston Mercer (Make-up Design), Telsey + Company, Justin Huff, CSA (Casting), Adam Souza (Musical Direction), with Musical Supervision and Arrangements and Orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award winner Stephen Oremus.

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