Cyndi Style

By Sarah Berlow

Colorful eighties pop icon Cyndi  Lauper already has singer, songwriter, and actress on her resume. Now she has another string to her bow: unofficial spokesperson for the Tohoku region.

Last March 11, Ms. Lauper arrived at Tokyo’s Narita Airport to find that Japan, where she has toured frequently since 1983, was being rocked by the triple disasters of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. Instead of fleeing, Ms. Lauper continued with her concert tour plans, and promised to return the next year.

Ms. Lauper kept her promise, visiting the disaster zone in the Tohoku region last week. The visit took her to Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture, where she visited an elementary school and donated a locally restored piano, along with a cherry tree.

“I played in Tokyo, and when I sang ‘True Colors,’ everyone sang back to me,” Ms. Lauper told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan Monday,  referring to one of her early concerts in Japan. The singer said was the first time she had ever heard the hit song, which she describes as being about healing, sung back to her.

When the disasters struck, she said, she and her band stuck by her musical philosphy that “rock-n-roll can heal the world,” staying to try to help Japan through her music.  “If I left, what would ‘True Colors’ have meant anyway? What kind of healing song would it have been if I came in singing that and then hightailed it out of here because it looked a little scary?”

This year Ms. Lauper is continuing in the same vein, performing throughout Japan, while also encouraging her Japanese fans to buy its local products to help the economy, and not isolate the people of Tohoku.

She also had some frank words for the Japanese government, asking it for full disclosure on possible radiation contamination in Tohoku.

“When you don’t know, you’re fearful and you feel powerless.” Ms. Lauper said. “Information is power.” Ms. Lauper’s parting words were also in support of Tohoku: “Have a sake for me from Fukushima, it’s pretty good!”

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Kinky Boots, the new musical by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein and Grammy winner Cyndi Lauper, will make its world premiere at Chicago’s Bank of America Theatre this fall. After the Chicago run, the musical, directed and choreographed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, aims to strut to Broadway. No Broadway timeline or casting for either production has been announced.

Inspired by a true story and based on the 2005 film, Kinky Boots follows Charlie Price as he, after the sudden death of his father, is forced to step in and save his family’s shoe factory in Northern England. Help comes from the unlikeliest angel, a fabulous drag performer named Lola. Together, this improbable duo not only revitalizes the nearly bankrupt business, but helps one another grow into the men their fathers always dreamed their sons would become, and transforms an entire community through the power of acceptance.

Kinky Boots will be presented by Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig. The musical marks Lauper’s theatrical debut as a writer. She appeared as Jenny in the 2006 revival of The Treepenny Opera.

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by Izzy Grinspan

And the award for most unusual combination of celebrities in an ad campaign goes Uniqlo, which has tapped tiny blogging powerhouse Tavi Gevinson and ’80s singing powerhouse Cyndi Lauper to show off their spring collection. Gevinson and Lauper are both wearing tops from the Orla Kiely collab and brightly colored spring bottoms, which you can now buy in seven different colors around Manhattan.

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Well hello Cyndi Lauper! The quirky 58-year-old looked fun and funky while walking the red carpet at the 2012 Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Sunday (February 12th). Cyndi showed off some long white legs in her Jean Paul Gaultier black blazer topped gown with thigh high slit. Her famous hair was crazy as ever. You have to give the girl credit for always taking a risk!

Cyndi won a Grammy for Best New Artist back in 1985.

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By Gabriel Beltrone

Win Powerball, and you can hire Cyndi Lauper to serve as your personal house musician.

So says a 2012 New York Lottery campaign running under the new tagline, “Yeah, that kind of rich,” created by the brand’s longtime agency, DDB New York. Timed to the increase in the price of Powerball tickets this month from $1 to $2, the integrated campaign focuses on doubled payouts rather than doubled costs by illustrating just how absurdly wealthy the game just might make you. “We were looking for something that made people get excited about the bigger jackpot opportunities,” said DDB New York’s chief creative officer Matt Eastwood.

Two of three TV spots—including one where Lauper sings (and shuts up) at the whims of a lady lounging on a couch in her living room—launched during the Golden Globes telecast. The third, starring a “poor” soul who struggles to find his Lotus among the other luxury cars in his garage, broke during the NFC championship game.

Recalling the “Hey, you never know” work for the brand, the new campaign includes radio, print, digital, mobile and out of home. New York Lottery spent some $35.5 million on media in the first three quarters of 2011, according to Kantar.

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By Jon Fassnacht

Girls just wanna have funk. And blues. And dulcimers.

At least that’s what Cyndi Lauper really wants.

The former pop princess showed she’s much deeper than her hits during a well-attended show Saturday night in the Sovereign Performing Arts Center.

The 58-year-old New Yorker was joined by New Orleans legend Dr. John for nearly three hours of what was billed as “From Memphis to Mardi Gras.”

Lauper’s backing quintet had quite the pedigree: The rhythm section featured alumni from Stax and Hi Records.

Four of the 14 songs performed were culled from last year’s “Memphis Blues,” an album of blues covers. Surprisingly, the songs didn’t sound out of place rubbing shoulders with the likes of “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough.”

That had much to do with the re-imagined arrangements.

Hits “All Through The Night,” “Time After Time” and “True Colors” were led by Lauper on a dulcimer, while “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” included an extended gospel intro.

Lauper was a magnetic presence, rolling around the stage during “She Bop,” sultrily slinking through the opening of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Lead Me On,” unleashing a tribal dance during a drum break and leading the crowd on a call-and-response during “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” while standing on one of the seats.

Unfortunately, in a case of bitter irony, a scuffle broke out in the crowd during her cover of “What’s Going On,” Marvin Gaye’s ode to peace.

Dr. John – or, according to Lauper, “Dr. Jah-won” – couldn’t have gotten the evening off to a better start. There may have been a doctor in the house, but the music was sick, so swampy you could almost feel the humidity.

Wearing a red pinstripe suit and sunglasses, the gravelly voiced 70-year-old looked like Hank Williams Jr.’s cooler brother.

He switched back and forth from a piano and a Hammond organ, and even showed off some guitar skills.

The tight quintet tore through 75 minutes of funk, blues and rock, closing with two duets with Lauper: the standard “Makin’ Whoopie” and the spiritual “Glory, Glory Hallelujah.”

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Those who might have sat out gay icon Cyndi Lauper’s latest tour thinking either they’re just not that into the blues (her latest album is devoted exclusively to the genre) or they could just catch it on DVD (a live double-disc set drops next week) made a huge mistake — her fiery 90-minute set Tuesday night at the 9:30 Club was full of surprises, from the number of hits she included to the vastly different set list the show had compared to her 2010 stop at the same venue.

Lauper, of course, is always full of surprises. She always varied her show from night to night so you never quite know what you’re going to get. Tuesday’s concert found the 58-year-old legend, who was just here two weeks ago to play a mini set at the Human Rights Campaign dinner, she-bopping around the stage with both physical and vocal abandon. This is clearly not a woman who plays it safe. Obviously singing live, she belted out several money notes that proved her legendary pipes — infinitely heartier and more robust than Madonna’s or Cher’s — are wonderfully intact with her full range entirely at her disposal.

It’s always a little tricky programming a concept album into a set but Lauper’s tight band, which included blues legend Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, furnished an uncannily apt musical continuity throughout the evening so smoldering cuts like “Just Your Fool” and “Shattered Dreams” flowed nicely into Lauper staples like “Change of Heart” and, of course, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Lauper’s other great triumph is how inventively she and her musical cohorts alter her arrangements from tour to tour. This can be a tricky thing that occasionally has stymied the singer — her “At Last”-era arrangement of “She Bop” sounded like something a violinist would play at your table at a ’50s-era Italian restaurant. Interesting enough, but hardly grooving. Thankfully it was back in an uptempo arrangement Tuesday. The evening’s biggest surprises were smoldering renditions of catalog staples like  ”Gonnies R Good Enough,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” (which just missed the U.S. Top Ten when Lauper released it as a 1987 single) and a radically reworked “Lyfe” from her underrated 2008 album “Bring Ya to the Brink.” The only so-so song was a meandering “Down So Low” (from the new album) that didn’t catch fire.

The ballads — “All Through the Night,” “Time After Time” and encore “True Colors” — were less altered but all sung with conviction and bravado. “Colors” especially resonated with Musselwhite providing surprisingly effective harmonica for its familiar opening strains. When introducing the song, Lauper — sporting a Raggedy Ann-red wig clipped up in a quasi mohawk style — reiterated her gay support and talked about her New York center for homeless LGBT youth. Fans willing to donate $200 to her True Colors Foundation got to meet Lauper backstage for a quick meet and greet. Photos and autographs were allowed but it was a cattle call with her handlers moving people through in rapid succession just before she went on. I didn’t go but could see the proceedings in the 9:30 Club’s stage left balcony area.

If the set list — just 14 songs — looked a little meager on paper, keep in mind Lauper was co-headlining with zydeco legend Dr. John (he wasn’t merely the opening act) and Lauper is clearly of the Stevie Nicks school of set list construction — do fewer songs but give your tight band time to jam a little. It’s the opposite of a Diana Ross or Loretta Lynn (who just played the 9:30 Club Saturday) show where they plow through material like a grocery store check-out clerk.

The big shock of the evening was Lauper duetting with Dr. John during his set on “All Night Long.” It’s highly unusual for a headliner to do such a thing but it made for a great bonus to the evening, especially for the gays in the house, many of whom were merely waiting for Lauper’s set despite Dr. John’s obvious talent.

Cyndi’s set was:
(“All Night Long” pre-set number with Dr. John)
1. Just Your Fool
2.  Shattered Dreams
3. She Bop
* band intros
4. Crossroads
5. All Through the Night
6. Down So Low
7. Don’t Cry No More
8. Goonies R Good Enough
9. Change of Heart
10. What’s Going On
11. Lyfe
12. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
13. Time After Time
14. True Colors (encore)

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WHAT: The tour is called “From Memphis to Mardi Gras” and, OK, it’s easy to spot the New Orleans connection: Dr. John is a Big Easy icon, with a formidable reputation for intricate piano-pounding that has only been enhanced by the recent spotlight of the HBO series ”Treme.” What might be more surprising is singer Cyndi Lauper’s latest incarnation as a Memphis-style blues belter. But believe it: The “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” star is on the road with a blues band, performing songs off her Grammy-nominated 2010 album, “Memphis Blues.” Hey, whatever the girl wants to sing, we’re willing to listen.

WHEN: 8 tonight

WHERE: House of Blues, Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista

COST: $39.50 advance, $43 day of show

CALL: 407-934-2583

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