My Life, Made Possible By Pop Culture

With season finales behind us and an onset of new, crappy reality shows awaiting, now is the perfect time to turn off the television, peel ourselves out of the indentation we have made in our couches, and join the real world.  The summer lineup boasts more pseudo-reality shows than we should know what to do with anyway, so why not experience real life and culture a little more in a semi-lost form: live?

The silence emanating from our television sets may be eerie and haunting in the first few days, but we will adjust… just as our eyes will adjust to the blinding brightness once we finally step out of our dimly halogen-lit living room and into the unrelenting path of the sun.  In case there are some signs of withdrawal symptoms within the first few days, there is no need to run screaming for the remote and experience a relapse!  There are some events designed perfectly for people like us—events that will showcase some of our favorite TV regulars in person and performing original stand-up material.

Kathy Griffin (My Life on the D-List) will grace stages through October.  Coincidentally, the fourth season of her show premieres on Bravo in the middle of June, but she is ten times funnier live and off the cuff; check out her DVD Allegedly for proof. Similarly, Nick Swardson, best known from Reno 911! will be appearing nationally starting May 2 all the way through the end of September.  In preparation, Nick’s past comedy specials are also now available on CD, DVD, and iTunes.  Kids in the Hall have reunited for a two-month tour across the country, with a showcase that features some new material, as well as some classics bits.  Lewis Black (Root of All Evil) will yell at audiences through the middle of August.

Country music fans can get two concerts for the price of one with Kenny Chesney and Leann Rimes’ double-billed “Poets & Pirates Tour;” Alicia Keys will bring down the house for the R&B crowd; Kanye West redefines hip-hop with his “Glow in the Dark Tour,” and there are even a few more chances to catch Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige’s “Heart of the City” tour.

Looking for a little nostalgia?  John Mellencamp, Duran Duran, John Fogerty, and Steely Dan all have dates scheduled this summer.  New Kids on the Block kicks off their own reunion tour playing a few KIIS compilation concerts.  Or there’s also Neil Diamond, who kicks off his tour with an American Idol mentoring, before hitting the road only to circle back and perform two very special back-to-back shows at the Hollywood Bowl (the ultimate concert experience if you live in the Los Angeles area) in October.

And speaking of American Idol, if you’re looking for entertainment to appease your son or daughter or younger brother and sister who haven’t gone away to camp, this year’s Top 12 contestants take the stage all together again on July 1, only a few months after the newest winner is crowned.

Also, the Jonas Brothers are touring nationally for the first time as headliners, and if you live in Southern California or on the east coast, there are opportunities to catch them with Miley Cyrus for an extra special show.  For the even younger crowd, Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up is chock full of music, laughs, and learning.

Regardless of specific interest, there is a plethora of entertainment designed to give technology a run for its money; regardless of how great these artists look or sound on a screen, it pales in comparison to the emotional power of seeing them live.  Television has always been a pretty passive activity; we can plop down in front of it and let its information wash over us without any social interaction whatsoever; it is often an isolating activity.  Attending a concert or performance, however, allows the chance to see the same material through new eyes and experience it with thousands of others of liked-minded people. Once given a taste of such aforementioned events, we may find enjoyment in this new lifestyle among the public so much that when the 08-09 TV season starts up in the fall, it may no longer fill us with the usual tingly excitement. So though some consider tickets to the aforementioned events a bit pricey, the memories alone will be priceless.

With the twelve-year run of Jonathan Larson’s RENT coming to a close this September, the course of Broadway’s history will be forever altered as the seventh-longest running show of all-time, and longest current show, will be no more. RENT touched a generation, not only introducing youth to musical theater but also actually getting them excited for it; the play launched stars as well as attracted them in its later years. Brief performances by Neil Patrick Harris, *NSync’s Joey Fatone, Melanie ‘Sporty Spice’ Brown, My So-Called Life’s Wilson Cruz or American Idol’s Frenchie Davis and Tamyra Gray certainly brought in renewed interest, as well as new media coverage, expanding the show’s audience to yet another generation. In fact, just like how the tide of entertainment news has turned from simple film promotion to focusing on every celebrity happening from the life changing to the mundane, so is Broadway hoping to capitalize on the public’s ever-expanding interest in such stars.

Before Christina Applegate struck comedy gold with Samantha Who? she took a stint in “Sweet Charity,” a play about a young hostess’ exploits dealing with love and life in New York City. Unfortunately for fans and the show in general, Applegate broke her foot during rehearsal, and without her the show was destined to close early. Applegate pleaded with producers to keep the show going long enough to take the stage, but by then the damage had already been done. There wasn’t enough interest in the revival past its star, even when Molly Ringwald stepped in, and “Sweet Charity’s” lights went out only eight months after it opened.

Similarly, producers hoped to drum up interest for old classics like “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Hairspray,” or “The Color Purple” by casting those who would appear to the MTV and younger generations, like Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, Ashley Angel Parker, and Fantasia, respectively. What they failed to take into consideration, though, while courting the younger audiences, was the rising ticket prices in a city that has become too expensive to live right out of college without at least two roommates, eating Top Ramen and popcorn for dinner—not to mention the fact that attention spans have gotten shorter and shorter. It is hard enough to sit still during a two-hour show if the plot drags for even a few minutes or doesn’t feature any special effects, so no matter how they try to glam it up, Broadway may always have an old-fashioned feel.

Bringing in celebrities is certainly not a foolproof contingency plan, either, as the media names a new “it” star every few months or so, and the cost of keeping up often proves to be too much for some of the more meager theatres, which explains why nowadays shows come on and off of the various stags from 42nd to 53rd Streets in Manhattan quicker than the cabs fly by the corner when you’re trying to hail one. Though many actors often gravitate toward the live energy of the stage because that atmosphere feeds into their need for immediate gratification (the rush given from looking out at a couple hundred faces all eager to hear your next line in prose or song is like nothing they will get on a film set, when the only eyes staring back at them are often those of the bored and distracted crew members, thinking more about what’s for lunch than what’s going on in the scene), they are often anxious to move onto their next project after only a few months, too, having gotten used to that kind of lifestyle from their time in film. So while productions of “Curtains,” “The Year of Magical Thinking,” “Talk Radio,” and “A Moon for the Misbegotten” all saw major surges while boasting headliners David Hyde Pierce, Vanessa Redgrave, Live Schreiber, and Kevin Spacey (respectively), the shows are destined to have a blink-and-you-missed them run because who could follow those leads? Once the stars decide to move on, the shows undoubtedly will be forced to close, as well. Whereas the power of Broadway used to be about the stories, it now appears to be in the hands of the storytellers.

Even though “In The Heights,” the hip-hop and salsa-infused tale of young working-class New Yorkers by a young New Yorker, appeals to the younger demographic, it endured years off-Broadway before slow-spreading word of mouth from the city’s anti-hipsters and theatre critics garnered its uptown move. Now it has gained even more acclaim through multiple Tony nominations, but its stars are still virtual unknowns, so therefore its box office has only been modest. Unfortunately, it seems like today’s Broadway requires the courting of an already famous face to bring the people in droves.

Fresh off the backlash of her oddball marriage to (recently turned-equally-oddball) Tom Cruise and her disappointing film choices (Mad Money), Katie Holmes is hoping to regain some acting cred for her turn in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” making her Broadway debut this fall. It’s sad, but perhaps, though, “In The Heights” should try to steal her away in an attempt to give them the much-deserved numbers she will undoubtedly bring to her performances… even if half of those people are just hoping for a glimpse of Tom, hovering eerily in the wings.