Stark Sands on Working With Cyndi Lauper
Every once in a while, one of the people I’m interviewing will share a fantastic anecdote with me that just doesn’t fit into my story.
Luckily, that’s where the blog comes in! This week’s story comes from Stark Sands, a HP graduate who is now starring as the Charlie Price of Kinky Boots on Broadway. All of the music and lyrics were written by Cyndi Lauper (yes, the Cyndi Lauper) and the musical won six Tonys this year.
Here’s the scoop on Sands and Lauper’s special relationship:
“My fingerprints are on this musical. There was a song [Cyndi Lauper] wrote before anybody came on board, it was Charlie’s first solo. It was a great song, but once it was staged and put into the show, it didn’t really fit in my vocal range perfectly. It wasn’t as impressive as it could be.
“The director, after three weeks of performing it, told Cyndi to write me a new song. She called me and said “I am going to write you a new song, what songs did you listen to when you were thirteen years old and signing in the shower?”
“I thought back to my days at Highland Park, where I happened to be in a band with my friends, and we loved Pearl Jam, Weezer, Cat Stevens, and Elton John. She seized on the Weezer reference. She went off and researched different albums that they did back in those days, and basically wrote me her version of a Weezer song. It’s amazing to know that she listened to what I said, and wrote me a song. It fits perfectly in my range.
“I have a song that was written for me by Cyndi Lauper. It’s called Step One.”
Can’t remember the name of Stark’s band, but do remember those kids had a song about an old 6th grade middle school language arts teacher named Mrs. Palmer who wore a daisy in her hair every single day.
That’s awesome, congrats to Stark on this very cool scenario.
The band’s name was Static. They had a bunch of songs with clever lyrics. But the song about Mrs. Palmer was definitely the best.
I have seen Stark in both American Idiot and Kinky Books on Broadway. Both performances were amazing. His success is yet another that the community has fostered. Ms Reya’s list of stars continues to grow.