At 72, Cyndi Lauper Still Just Wants to Have Fun

Do you have hopes that Working Girl will go to Broadway?

Oh, it’s going to go to Broadway. I’ve been writing the music with Rob Hyman [75], who I wrote Time After Time with, so that it has the ’80s sounds. And he was involved in the 1983 She’s So Unusual album. And I asked Salt [Cheryl James, 59] from Salt-N-Pepa, she wrote a rap for one of the songs — that’s ’80s. And I’m writing also with Sammy James Jr. from The Mooney Suzuki. He was part of my music team for Kinky Boots. I tried to put together a very strong team.

What do you miss most about the ’80s?

The music, especially at the beginning of the ’80s, was very exciting for me, but that was because I was in it. All the music that came from Australia and from England was so amazing. Even Canada. And in New York, there was a music scene. In L.A., there was a music scene. There were pockets in cities around the country that had music scenes. The club scene now is gone. I miss that. I miss the nurturing of young talent, new talent. And they don’t have that. Now it’s on TikTok … And it’s hard because you don’t learn performance.

Before launching her solo career, Lauper was the lead singer of Blue Angel, which released its only album in 1980. “The music, especially at the beginning of the ‘80s, was very exciting for me, but that was because I was in it,” she says.

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Who gave you the best advice?

People were always giving me advice. My manager, the people that I worked with. I had this one promotion guy. I still know him. He was absolutely fabulous as a promotion guy. He used to tell me things like, “Listen, Petunia, it ain’t easy being a teenage idol.” And every time I see a petunia, I remember he told me that. … I’m still improving on my people skills — I take a leadership class so that my poor manager doesn’t have to come back to me and say, “Cyn, you said what to who?"

What would you tell somebody just starting out in the business today? What advice would you give them?

That unfortunately, it’s gonna take a village to do what your dream is, unless you’re gonna paint on a canvas, but it’s not a canvas. And so there’s a lot of people involved. And that unfortunately, you think you’re just gonna create this thing, but you can’t create it alone, because you have to go through so many. And you’re going to work with other artists too, like the musicians. They’re artists, so you have to learn how to get them to contribute as best as who they are for what you need. That was a hard one to learn.

Are there other younger talents that you admire, that maybe you’d like to record with?

There’s many great young artists. There’s Chappell Roan. There’s Sabrina Carpenter. There’s Ariana [Grande]. There’s Cynthia Erivo. … She could sing that any day, which is kind of the way I was when I was 30 or even 50. As you get older, you have to work harder on your craft. Like for me and my voice, as an old artist, there’s so many different parts of my voice to warm up because I’m not just using one part of it. So I have to warm up a lot, so that takes sometimes an hour.

How do you keep your voice in great shape? 

I’ve been taking vocal lessons for 45 years, on and off. I do it for strength, agility, air, things like that.

What’s the best part about getting older?

Not a lot. It sucks. If you can just put some time aside to live, to just live and enjoy smelling the flowers. And that’s another reason why it’s my farewell tour. It’s not like I’m not gonna work, but it’s a lot of schlepping. And it’s a lot of luggage. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the shows, because I do. I enjoy the people. I enjoy the fact that it’s a community of these wonderful, all ages, all different kinds of people that come to the show. And I get to make them leave happy and hopeful. Most important thing. And that, to me, is a great thing to do.

In 1995, Lauper won an Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for her work on NBC’s “Mad About You.”

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You have a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy, and will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame soon — what was the most meaningful to you?

It always meant a lot that I could fill a place. At my first performance as a solo artist, there were only 14 people in the club, but when I didn’t have to count heads, I felt better. I played the Garden [Madison Square Garden] this [tour] and it was full. This farewell tour has been pretty amazing — with the people. There’s a lot of love, and I’m just grateful. I always try to put my best foot forward and do something that was meaningful for people, as opposed to just wanting to have a hit record.

What do you do for fun?

I try and have fun every day. Whether it’s going on a walk with my husband or going to see a movie or going to a museum with him or looking at fashion or whatever it is. And laughing. I like to laugh a lot. I like to play games with my friends. Like stupid games, like Rummikub or Bananagrams. I don’t even know how to spell well, but it’s very funny to listen to people. Or have a little party with people, or have a Christmas party and have everybody sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” because you know they’re going to f--- it up, and it’s funny. When you have people around and everybody’s singing, and you eat together and you sing together and maybe dance together — it makes it a lot of fun.