Madonna may be a billionaire. I think you’ve probably overstated this by a huge amount.
The problem with Cyndi Lauper may be that she’s impossible to work with.
I really don’t think so. According to this link:
That’s seven to eight percent of the gross. Eight shows a week. Of a production that charges (in New York) $137 a seat. In a theater that holds 1,424 people.
When this sucker goes out on the road? Giant, huge insane piles of money.
Just check out Cyndi’s discography: Cyndi Lauper discography - Wikipedia
She’s not as famous in the pop market because she stopped doing pop. She went into specific genre’d music that doesn’t produce top pop rankings where her song is played to death on the radio. However, she’ll have the top blues album of the year. Top. Blues. Album. Of the year. But Blues ain’t pop(ular).
What did Madonna have that Cyndi didn’t? A drive to do pop music… for 30 years.
E.g., at this moment, I can imagine that Madonna’s probably trying to line up a duet with Bieber, while Cyndi’s looking to work with the Icelandic Philharmonic.
Well I just had a “Wow! That is strange!” moment.
I was listening to Etta James doing this very song and put it on pause as I clicked the link. Cyndi doing the exact same song!
Coincidence? I think so.
A bit unfortunate that I saw that with Etta fresh on my mind. Cyndi certainly did it justice, but I’d say Etta nails it so hard it’s tough for anyone to pull the lid off.
Crazy serendipity, huh? What are the odds? I’ve had similar thing s happen as well, but I’m constantly listening to music, so that contributes.
Meh, both did a great version of the song. She’s not Etta, and that’s the joy of someone else doing it. We know what Etta’s version sounds like. As a fan of Etta’s version, I appreciate the wonderful job Cyndi did, the guts it takes to perform a such an iconic vocal showcase, and the skill and talent to do it justice. I rather like her spare arrangement as well. I’ve found too often that I have difficulty enjoying a 60’s or 50’s vocal performance due to the syrupy arrangements that were so common back then.
Cyndi’s probably bringing it to people who don’t know Etta’s version. Perhaps some will be curious enough to jump on YouTube and learn something new.
That may be true but Cyndi Lauper will not be struggling. I recall years ago reading about how hard it was to buy good musicals for movies because the royalties made long theater runs more attractive to the writers. The writers would receive, usually, 6% of the gross ticket sales. As Lauper wrote both the music and lyrics she should be getting 4%. The musical is doing sellout business and at 8 performances a week should be grossing about $1.4 million a week. I imagine the almost $3 million a year she will earn from this one venue alone will keep her happy.
And for people who doubt her vocal chops here she gets a standing ovation from Joni Mitchell for her performance of Mitchell’s Carey.
She’s probably halfway there, but Forbes doesn’t think she’s anywhere near a billion yet.
These kinds of estimates always vary a lot. Point here is I’m sure Cyndi Lauper is going to make a ton of money here but I doubt it’s more than Madonna has ever made.
Everything I’ve seen seems to be pretty consistent. Here is an article on the subject.
I have no clue what Cyndi Lauper is going to clear on this musical deal, but I agree that gaffa has greatly overstated his case.
I really don’t think this is true.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of the musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Sunset Boulevard, and others. Of these, two (Evita and Phantom) have been made into major feature films. Two (Phantom and Cats, respectively) rank first and second in the list of longest-running shows on Broadway of all time. All the shows mentioned, and others, have had success on London’s West End and internationally. There are probably more productions of Phantom running in the world right now than of any other show possibly excepting Les Miserables. He has seven Tony Awards and three Grammy Awards. He is unquestionably the most financially successful writer of musical theatre there has ever been - and his company also produces theatre, leading to even more income.
His net worth is about $1.2 billion, about twice that of Madonna at $650M.
There’s no way Cyndi Lauper, with one Tony Award-winning show that will probably be quite successful but not close to what Phantom or Cats did, will even approach $650M in net worth from this show alone.
A better comparison for Lauper might be someone like Stephen Schwartz. He has written music and lyrics a number of very successful musicals, including Pippin (now a Tony winning revival) and Wicked, which has been breaking box office records for a decade now. I can’t find a good estimate of his net worth anywhere, but he doesn’t appear on the Top 50 lists (and Madonna tends to slot in between 15 and 20). Kinky Boots would be tremendously fortunate to achieve the success of Wicked, and the author of the latter doesn’t even approach Madonna financially in spite of having several other very successful projects in his history.
So no, Cyndi Lauper won’t outearn Madonnna on the basis of this Tony. But she’ll do just fine.
Reported for WTF?