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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 28 July 2022
Cyndi Lauper says ‘Kinky Boots’ offers hope for a new time

By MARK KENNEDY ple do?
AP Entertainment Writer LAUPER: This is what I think:
NEW YORK (AP) — Three Information is power.
years after it closed on Knowledge is power. It’s
Broadway, the musical like when I want to find out
“Kinky Boots” returns to what the news is, I don’t
New York City. The show watch one thing. I even try
may not have changed, and watch a foreign news
but the country has. station so that I could get
The Cyndi Lauper- and Har- what other people looking
vey Fierstein-created musi- at my country are saying.
cal landed on Broadway I learned that the minute
in 2013 in the middle of the I started traveling outside
Obama administration, a the country to work.
big hug of acceptance, AP: What do artists do now?
tolerance and love. It reap- LAUPER: You have to share
pears off-Broadway now at your stories, and you have
Stage 42 as same-sex gains to understand that as you
and privacy rights seem un- want people to listen to
der threat. you, you’ve got to listen to
The Tony- and Olivier-win- what they’re saying, too.
ning musical is about a And then you’ve got to un-
staid British shoe factory on derstand their humanity.
the brink of ruin that retrofits AP: You’ve mentioned be-
itself into a maker of foot- Cyndi Lauper arrives at the 60th annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York, fore that you’re not a fan
wear for drag queens and Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. of so-called cancel culture.
embraces its queerness. Associated Press Why?
Lauper, whose hits include LAUPER: It’s an opportu-
“Girls Just Want to Have York? in a bad mood and it just AP: Why did you release a nity when people make a
Fun” and “Time After Time,” LAUPER: I wasn’t keen on makes me feel better. And new version of “Sally’s Pi- mistake or you don’t say
has long been an advo- putting it off-Broadway, but I start laughing. It’s just geons”? the right thing, that you
cate for the LGBTQ com- when everyone explained good. It has redemption. LAUPER: Because I think that can understand because
munity, starting the non- how they felt and what they It’s a story that has redemp- we have forgotten what someone else shares their
profit advocacy organiza- missed and what was go- tion. And that’s the most it was like when “Sally’s Pi- story and you share yours,
tion that would become ing on, I understood that it’s important thing. You need geons” was a common and you understand. Your
True Colors United in 2008. just a place where people to give people hope. You story. Not a lot of people understanding changes.
She also backs abortion could watch a show where can’t take people’s hope remember that because Then people can evolve.
rights and just reworked her not just one person evolves, away. they didn’t live that. Therefore as a country, we
1993 song “Sally’s Pigeons,” but everyone evolves. AP: “Kinky Boots” is all about AP: Do you think the right can evolve. We can. We
which she wrote about AP: It does offer a big wet acceptance and reaching represents the wishes of can make it better.
a friend who died from a kiss to theatergoers. out. Do you worry about most Americans? AP: So we should keep shar-
botched abortion. LAUPER: I just think it’s a the tone of the country LAUPER: In my mind and in ing, keep talking?
The Associated Press asked wonderful experience and now that many seem to my heart, and in the people LAUPER: Look, sometimes
her about the return of it’s inclusive. And, to me, be opposed to that senti- I have sung to all around the person you work with
“Kinky Boots,” so-called that makes everything a ment? this country, Americans are for 12 hours a day, they
cancel culture and the role little richer. You know, I LAUPER: Who died and left mostly fair-minded people. have a different life ex-
of artists now that rights never even liked one kind them in charge of every- We have been put to the perience and maybe you
are being rolled back. Re- of music. I like music that’s thing? Well, I’ll tell you: If test with this COVID thing. share your story together,
sponses have been edited exposed to everything. Like you didn’t vote, you left We had been put to the you can both evolve, right?
for brevity and clarity. cooking. I don’t have a them in charge. As soon as test with finances. But do You can evolve together.
AP: What were your bland palate. you didn’t vote, they’re in you really want to lose your And that’s what it should
thoughts about bringing AP: Has it stood up? charge. They’re changing democracy? be, that we can evolve not
“Kinky Boots” back to New LAUPER: I could go in there the laws. AP: What can regular peo- cancel each other.q

Mayim Bialik, Ken Jennings to split

'Jeopardy!' host job

By LYNN ELBER as the late Alex Trebek's re- Jeopardy! hosting careers
AP Television Writer placement. who connect with their
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Jeop- Executive producer Mi- own unique fanbases, new
ardy!" is giving itself two chael Davies said in an fans, and the traditional
answers to the question of announcement posted on- Jeopardy! viewer," Davies
who gets to host the quiz line Wednesday that deals said in the statement.
show — Mayim Bialik and were signed with Bialik and Jennings, an all-time "Jeop-
Ken Jennings. Jennings "to be the hosts ardy!" champion, and ac-
In this combination of images shows Ken Jennings, left, as he Bialik and Jennings have of Jeopardy! moving for- tor Bialik ("Call Me Kat," "The
appears at the 2020 ABC Television Critics Association Winter been serving as rotating ward." Big Bang Theory") were
Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 8, 2020, and actress Mayim hosts since Mike Richards "In Mayim and Ken, we among the guest hosts who
Bialik as she appears at the 23rd annual Critics' Choice Awards exited the show amid con- have two outstanding hosts filled in after Trebek's death
in Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018. troversy after a short tenure at the beginning of their from cancer in 2020. q
Associated Press