Kinky Boots: Cyndi Lauper to write Broadway musical

Cyndi Lauper	Harvey Fierstein

Pop star and songwriter Cyndi Lauper is to collaborate with Broadway veteran Harvey Fierstein in writing a new Broadway musical comedy based on the 2005 movie Kinky Boots. Lauper will write the score with Fierstein writing the lyrics and adapting the screenplay for the stage.

The musical is to be directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchel ('Legally Blonde,' 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels') , and is being produced by Broadway producers Daryl Roth ('A Little Night Music,' 'Fela!') and Hal Luftig ('West Side Story,' 'Thoroughly Modern Millie.')

There has been no announcement as to when the musical may arrive on the Great White way. Daryl Roth has said a workshop production is expected in the Fall, but there has been no announcement about when the show will bow on the Great White Way.

No casting has been announced, however, it is always possible that Harvey Fierstein may star. The actor has previously appeared in other works he has written: 'A Catered Affair,' 'Safe Sex' and 'Torch Song Trilogy.'

Cyndi Lauper shot to fame in the 80's with the release of her album 'She's So Unusual,' which featured the pop anthems, 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun,' 'Time after Time.' She has appeared on Broadway as 'Jenny' in 'The Threepenny Opera' and could be suitable to play the musical's principle 'female' role of the drag queen 'Lola', who helps save a failing famly business by designing a range of fetish footwear. Lauper, while not known for her fetish footwear, does have an 'outrageous' fashion sense which she often wears at public appearances.

The screenplay for the 2005 Golden Globe Award-nominated British-American comedy film Kinky Boots, written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, tells the story of Charlie Price, who is trying to save his failing family business of traditional Northampton shoemakers. He travels to London to seek ideas, and while there meets up with a drag queen performer known as 'Lola.' With Lola's help the family business begins to design and make fetish footwear for tansvestites, and it is not long before the boots are in demand in the fashion world where they are displayed on catwalks in Milan, Italy.

"The story is really about relationships," Roth told the Hollywood Reporter, "and I want to find the heart at the center of it."

The film, directed by Julian Jarrold, starred Joel Edgerton as 'Charlie' and Chiwetel Ejiofor as 'Lola.'