Broken Frontier

I’m going to do something a little different with this week’s column, if for no other reason than because I can.

Now granted, there is nothing in this jumble of words that will burn (like how the name of the column suggests), so for the sake of being contradictive, for this week alone we can call it:  Ouch That Tickles.

Prior to my days in comics, I worked as an entertainment journalist, mostly trekking out to clubs and amphitheaters to review concerts and interview bands.  It was a sweet gig and I got to meet a lot of musicians that I dug and admired, but for the most part, it paid dirt.  There were perks of course, but perks don’t pay the bills.

So, as homage to my days of old, I have decided to use up this space to do a little reviewing of a show I recently attended.  Yes, I was there purely as a fan (which translates to: I actually paid to see it), but I figured… I’ve got an avenue to give my pointless opinions, so why the hell not!

And just so we’re clear, the show wasn’t so much a show as a musical.  Or at the very least, a satire of a musical.

THE NIGHTMAN COMETH, put on by the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the brash and over the top FX sitcom starring a group of friends who got lucky in television, and apparently, in love.  (A number of the cast members are married to each other in real life.)  Based on their season four finale by the same name, the musical is a completely nonsensical journey of a little boy becoming a man (or the Dayman more specifically), and ultimately, defeating the Nightman.

Yes, nonsensical, but damn it… It’s genius!

Now, I should preface it by saying that I had seen the Nightman episode a dozen or so times (two screenings in particular on the day of my wedding), so I went into the House of Blues on Lansdowne Street in Boston with a big smile on my face, particularly because the live performance is such a rare treat.  (Their tour includes a mere six cities.)  But, after seeing the cast members perform their trippy opus with 1200 super fans singing along with the awesomely sophomoric songs, I found myself with a brand new appreciation for the cult success of the show.

Featuring a handful of new songs and a screening of a forthcoming season five episode, the live version of The Nightman Cometh offered little in the way of new and unseen material.  Performed on stage nearly word for word to its initial airing (with the generous addition of various four letter words that you can’t even say on FX), it was like watching a director’s cut of the Nightman live, complete with cast blunders and bloopers.  On one hand I didn’t feel like I had seen anything new, but on the other, I felt like I had seen the Dayman born for the very first time.

With a crowd surfing Green Man touring the audience from above and a fan carrying his very own kitten with mittens like a badge of honor, the scene transformed into an almost cracked out version of what you’d expect to find at a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Everywhere you looked there was a Paddy’s Pub hat or an Electric Dream Machine t-shirt, and the crowd exploded like an arsenal of ballistic missiles when the cast appeared on stage, including film/TV veteran Danny DeVito.

Yes, you could have seen a much similar version of The Nightman Cometh at home for free, but then again, you could never experience that same kind of energy while sitting on your couch… Unless of course you invited a thousand or so people into your living room to watch it with you.

All in all, it was a great companion piece to an already stellar body of Sunny work.  I laughed… And I laughed so hard I cried.  Can’t beat that.

Check out seasons five of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia debuting tonight on FX.  Check your local listings! (I always wanted to say that.)