‘Glee Live!’ tour, at Mandalay Bay, a celebration of pop culture

"Glee" rockets through pop culture, and the actors involved with it try to hang on.

The season finale of Fox's musical hit airs Tuesday, but that's three days after this year's edition of "Glee Live! In Concert!" will have swept through Mandalay Bay.

Harry Shum Jr. sounded like he was barely keeping up with it last week, in the few days after wrapping the TV season, but before the cast headed to Mandalay Bay to spend four days rehearsing the tour, which kicks off Saturday in the arena.

"It was a long week," he reported. "We had really late nights, got off set at like, 5 in the morning." No one was exactly sure they were done until they were done, and by then it was too late for a cast party. "It was like a bittersweet moment. We ended up so late, everyone was just tired."

But this is the show that carpet-bombs iTunes with instant covers of "Hey, Soul Sister" or "Need You Now." So it seems about right that "Glee" is in the sports arenas even before it's finished on TV. The tour again relegates the adult leads to video cameos, but promises the student stars, including Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale and a capella breakout Darren Criss.

Shum didn't know what was in store for his show-stopping dancing until he showed up for rehearsals. But he does know, "they're going to kick it up a notch. Last year, we had a smaller stage and a little less people on that stage as well."

Last year's routing through theaters and outdoor amphitheaters underestimated the show's popularity, a mistake that could be doomed to repetition: The Mandalay show sold out well in advance and probably could have stayed two nights. But a 3-D theatrical release of a tour film will pick up the slack.

This year's numbers will be "multiplied by three or four, or maybe five -- or maybe more than that as far as audience goes," Shum says, quickly amending himself on the phone. "It's incredible what 'Glee' has been able to do just on this scope of things."

"Glee" even sells tickets at Green Valley High School, where choirs led by Kim Drusedum staged their own "Evening of Glee" earlier this week. Tickets "sold like crazy," Drusedum says, after a video promo on the school's in-house TV station.

This year, Drusedum revived a "Glee"-style pop choir she had retired 10 years ago, and students are arranging their own covers of hits such as "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles and "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World.

"Outside of people recognizing us and the work that we've done, what really makes me happy is hearing how it has affected people and not only changed pop culture, but also allowed people to really respect the arts," Shum says. "I think that's what's going to keep us moving forward."

Shum's fleet-footed Mike Chang was better known in last year's premiere season as "Other Asian" and did not speak. Even so, he went on tour and "was really taken aback by the response of people liking the character and actually screaming for him. I think that actually helped me in the second season, for being more involved," complete with dialogue.

Shum had one of his biggest screen moments re-creating "Make 'Em Laugh" with star Matthew Morrison, a prime example of the show's cross-generation reach. "Singin' in the Rain" is "one of my favorite musicals and also probably on the top 10 of my movies," Shum says. "I would love to bring that (style) back as much as I can, because I feel that's been lost over the years."

"Michael Jackson was obviously the most relevant pop star in our time, in our generation. And you look back at who his influences are, and it's Fred Astaire, Bob Fosse. You look at all that stuff and he basically took a lot of their musicals and kind of made it into his own."

Most of the "Glee" cast is probably too busy to dissect their show's zeitgeist, but Shum says they hear some of the reasons from fans: "There's so many different characters and such a diverse cast. Even the music is very diverse. People can find someone that's relatable on that screen, or a song they like, or maybe the themes are relatable.

"There's so many different factors, it's not just one thing, (such as) 'Oh, I like vampires.' You can like it for so many reasons."

Miles from the Strip, Green Valley High choir students echo Shum's point. "I could pretty much name someone in our choir that could be everyone on the TV show," says Erin DeSantis.

And choir really does pull in a cross-section of theater kids and mathletes, quarterbacks and cheerleaders.

The show "emphasizes that you can bring people together from all walks of life," Drusedum says. "The kids, they really don't have to have any formal training like in band and orchestra. Somebody can walk in off the street and we can teach them a part and they can learn it pretty quick."

And in a situation "where kids are trying to find themselves and trying to find a place where they belong, I think choir is really a big part of that and 'Glee' said that: 'You belong there. You can find a place where you belong. And what you have to say, and who you are, is accepted and respected.' "

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.