Cyndi Lauper is still having fun at her MSG comeback on farewell tour: review

On the third number of her “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” farewell tour at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, Cyndi Lauper sang “When You Were Mine,” her synthful Prince cover from her 1983 debut “She’s So Unusual.”

It was a reminder that, at 71, she had outlived other ’80s music icons such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and George Michael.

And for the first time since her 1986 “True Colors” tour, the New York native was playing her hometown arena again. Who would’ve thought it would take her 38 years to get back there?

But while Lauper never again reached the heights of her ’80s superstardom — her last Top 10 hit was 1989’s “I Drove All Night” — she has survived and evolved: She went from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1985 to winning a Tony for Best Original Score for “Kinky Boots” in 2013.

And now she is riding the wave of nostalgia for her pop career that has included a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, her documentary “Let the Canary Sing” and a “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” sample by Nicki Minaj (on “Pink Friday Girls”).

Seizing her moment to play arenas again on this farewell tour — although that doesn’t mean she is retiring from music or live performance — Lauper is unwinding the second hand back to her glory days.

And when she took the stage at a sold-out Garden to “She Bop” — her giddy ode to masturbation that riled up the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) as one of its “Filthy Fifteen” in 1985 — she was that punky rebel celebrating the joys of self-pleasure with her hiccuping vocal ticks that are singularly Cyndi.

Maybe she couldn’t pull that off in another few years, but she still can now. 

Then when she went into “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” — her hit from the “The Goonies” soundtrack — it was a total ’80s flashback delivered in her quintessentially quirky style.

By the time she got to “Money Changing Everything— the rock-charged opener of “She’s So Unusual” — she summoned all of the urgency of that young woman who was singing for her life back in the day. When she rolled on the floor at one point, it was hard to imagine that’s something she’ll be able to do forever.

While Lauper’s biggest hits came from her first three albums — “She’s So Unusual,” 1986’s “True Colors” and 1989’s “A Night to Remember” — she didn’t skip over the rest of her career. Ever the feisty feminist, she made a timely statement about abortion rights with the affecting 1993 ballad “Sally’s Pigeons,” and she revisited her rockabilly roots with her 2016 cover of Wanda Jackson’s “Funnel of Love.”

And Lauper brought the crowd to its feet with her full-voiced high note at the end of “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” her remake of the 1964 Gene Pitney hit that she originally sang with her pre-solo band Blue Angel.

From a vocal perspective, there is certainly no reason why Lauper should be saying any kind of goodbye. Her voice is a still a force-of-nature instrument that can go from a whisper to a wail.

And her biggest hits — although “All Through the Night” was a strange omission — were as undeniable as ever. She brought out surprise guest Sam Smith for a tender duet on “Time After Time,” her first No. hit. As iPhone flashlights lit up MSG, it was a reminder of the impact that she has had on the LGBTQ+ community as a fierce ally over the years.

Similarly, when she sang the queer anthem “True Colors” in the encore, she embraced the gay tradition of flagging with her interpretive dancing. There was a spare, haunting beauty to it, as if she was conjuring spirits of those lost to the AIDS epidemic with her rainbow flag.

Of course, it all had to end with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Although it felt a bit rushed to make the Garden’s 11 p.m. curfew, her signature bop hasn’t lost any of its exuberant bounce.

And Lauper, with her ageless ebullience,  remained eternally girlish.