Cyndi Lauper at Town Hall

She quietly walks on stage, and the 650 lucky spectators packed into Town Hall erupt into thunderous applause. Cyndi Lauper, petite, hair in a short white-blonde pixie, is glammed out to the max. Black pants and sheer black blouse, sparkly earrings. Long gone are the Technicolor hair extensions and gypsy get ups that helped make her an 80's pop icon. But it's her voice, powerful and amazingly versatile, that mesmerizes the crowd on this mild evening in Ptown.

Kicking off the show with a country rock tinged version of her pop classic She Bop, Lauper immediately has the crowd wrapped around her finger, and she keeps them there for the entire one hour set. Backed by a 4-piece band, La Cyndi works her way through several of her old school hits; All Through The Night, a blistering Change of Heart, and Money Changes Everything.

Between numbers, Cyndi works the crowd with funny anecdotes, rambling stage patter and natural charm, her famously nasal Betty Boop speaking voice punctuating every line. On her mother's book collection; 'She had the abridged Reader's Digest version of The Agony and The Ecstasy. It was just The Agony". Lauper served as Grand Marshall of Provincetown's Carnival Week Parade and relates how she was mistaken for a drag queen while riding on the hood of a car down Commercial Street. The audience loved her zany energy and kooky onstage antics, clapping and screaming in delight. "For those of you who think I'm drunk or stoned' Lauper explained, " I'm not- this is who I really am!"

The nearly acoustic presentation of songs gave her previously synth heavy numbers a spare, powerful, elemental feeling. It's Lauper's voice however, that brings it all together. By turns angelic and animal, sweet and oddly feral, her instrument is incredibly strong, controlled and unique. Soaring to the rafters of Town Hall, or quietly delivering an emotional lyric, her voice is hypnotic. How does that huge sound come out of that tiny woman?

Mid set, the star launches into Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun, walking out into the audience, and the energy in the room is palpable the entire house up on it's feet, rocking out. The structure of the show was a little odd, careening from ballads like Above the Crowd to uptempo jams like Shine seemingly at random, but Lauper is so beloved by the spectators that it doesn't matter. Keeping with the theme of this year's carnival week, she camps it up with Cole Porter's Who Said Gay Paree?, then closes the night with her number one hit Time after Time, bringing the crowd back down to Earth with gentle, heartfelt sounds and feeling.

Lauper has never looked or sounded better. Yes, she's still so unusual, she bops and she rocks. She is simply not to be missed.