Remember those teenage years when creativity, energy, imagination and youthful naivete allowed you to dream of a limitless, totally awesome future? You were a pop singer! An author! A fashion designer! A philanthropist! You were all of them at once!
Lisa Loeb is living that totally awesome dream. And, man, is it busy.
“Life is a little crazy right now,” she said this week from her home in Los Angeles, daughter Lyla toddling in the background. Yes, 19 months ago Loeb, 43, also became one of those cool rocker moms!
“It’s funny, but she has helped me organize my life,” Loeb said. “Her schedule creates structure, which is helpful for me, too.”
Loeb, who entered the pop culture zeitgeist thanks to her early ’90s, Grammy-nominated hit “Stay (I Missed You),” is juggling more than baby wipes and car seats these days.
With her songwriting partners Michelle Lewis and Dan Petty, she has revised her tween musical “Camp Kappawanna,” which gets a City Theatre production Friday-Sunday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. The show — with a book by Marco Ramirez, about the follies of a 12-year-old girl’s first time at sleepaway camp — has been improved since it debuted at Miami’s Arsht Center last year, Loeb said. “It’s tighter, with more songs to keep it moving along,” she said. “The kids really love it.”
For Loeb, summer camp has always been about more than the lanyard necklace and s’mores. Her nonprofit Camp Lisa Foundation, named for her 2008 album of the same name, raises money to send underprivileged kids to camp.
“Camp is about community, friendship, overcoming fears and … independence from parents,” Loeb said, echoing themes from the musical. “They also are exposed to literacy skills and leadership programs.”
The singer, whose sexy-nerdy look was almost instantly iconic, also continues to work on her Lisa Loeb Eyewear collection, which debuted about six months ago. Loeb has a hand in all phases of the line, from the architecture of each piece to the color and style, as well as the marketing. Loeb says she’s intimately aware of the balance that glasses-wearing women want to strike between function and fashion.
“This sounds like my Oprah moment, but I want these women to find their best self,” she said, adding that there’s no harm in “looking cute” too.
You also can look for a fall tour for Loeb, but for her book, “Lisa Loeb’s Silly Sing-Along: The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs (Sterling Publishing),” inspired by her new motherhood. “It’s a collection of songs and activities and recipes, beautifully illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke,” she said of the book, due out Oct. 4.
Loeb is leery of a full concert tour with her daughter so young, but admits it is probably an inevitability because she’s just finished a “whirlwind recording session” with Coral Springs guitar hero Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory. The two have remained friends since NFG began covering “Stay” in concert, sometimes with Loeb joining them onstage.
“We were talking and we agreed it would be fun to do a punky, poppy rock record,” recalled Loeb, who said she’s recently fallen under the spell of indie-rock twins Teagan & Sara. “It was perfect for some of the new songs I’ve written.”
IF YOU GO
“Camp Kappawanna” is performed 10 a.m. and noon Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $25, $3 lap seats for 2 and younger. Info: browardcenter.org, 954-462-0222.
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