If you live in the New York City area you’ve probably noticed the endless onslaught of commercials, billboards and ads hyping up the Tupac Shakur musical, “Holler If Ya Hear Me.” Well, Sunday night, after 38 performances and 17 previews, the show at the Palace Theatre will end its run. Producers of the musical hoped to attract new audiences to Broadway. Instead of having a “Field of Dreams” moment(“If we play Tupac’s music they will come.”), they should’ve realized that unless Tupac was actually in the play no one would show up at all(And, since the producers weren’t willing to shell out $400,000 a night for his hologram to make an appearance, the dream of Pac stopping by was highly unlikely.
This reminds me of the attempts that were made to turn Tupac’s, “Live 2 Tell” screenplay into a full-fledged movie. He wrote the screenplay while serving time at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York. After his death, it seemed that a film based on Pac’s one and only screenplay would be a must-see for fans. But when producers tried to raise $250,000 for start up costs on KickStarter, they instead received a mere $233.00 in donations. On December. 20, 2012 the funding campaign was shut down and we haven’t heard another word about the project since. All this tells me is that without the presence, charisma and actual participation of Tupac Shakur, any(non-music related) project will be unsuccessful. But maybe I’m wrong. What Tupac projects, other than unreleased music, would you want to see and be willing to pay for? List them in the comments section below.
– Kevin Keith
