Most people who will be attending Friday and Saturday night’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl will be going there to see Cyndi Lauper perform with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She’s the headliner. Of course she’s the main draw.
Lauper, who was named Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 1985, had massive hits with the songs “Time After Time,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “True Colors.”
She is also a Tony Award winner for her score and lyrics for Kinky Boots. Her collaboration there with book writer Harvey Fierstein and Tony Award-wining star Billy Porter should come as no surprise. She’s a staunch LGBTQ advocate and recently performed a few weeks ago at the Stonewall 50 – World Pride event in New York.
As talented as she is, my reason for going to this show is three-time Grammy Award winner Cécile McLorin Salvant. Her three most recently released albums: “For One to Love,” “Dreams and Daggers” and “The Window” earned her those three Grammy Awards.
In 2015 Nate Chinen of the New York Times acknowledged that she was then just about to turn 26. And though he had a quibble here and there he also admitted that she “is still exploring….And she knows as well as anyone that she’s too good not to get better.”
I’ve had the privilege of seeing her perform several times. The first was when she opened for Bryan Ferry at the Hollywood Bowl. Since then I’ve tried to catch at least one show while she’s in Los Angeles.
She is joined by the Aaron Diehl Trio for this performance.
Salvant is an incredibly smart and talented singer. But it would be irresponsible not to mention that she’s dealing with tragedy as she embarks on these two performances. Her drummer, Lawrence Leathers, was murdered in New York in early June.
In a 2015 interview with the Lansing City Pulse, Leathers said of Salvant, “I´ve never met a person that age with so much depth of understanding of the history of her craft.” He went on to say, “The beautiful thing with her is that her talent and her personality does all the talking.”
Expect that she will do as he said and let her song choices and brilliant performance say everything.
For tickets for Friday night go here.
For tickets for Saturday night go here.
Photo of Cécile McLorin Salvant by RR Jones/All photos courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association