Apr 20, 2008

Avenue Q

Brian and I treated ourselves to show tickets for Avenue Q last night. We originally thought we would not get the chance to see this show, as it was primarily showing in Las Vegas and New York upon opening. However, as most good shows do, it's been on national tour since July 2007. We went to the Wharton Center in Lansing for our show.

The show is inspired by Sesame Street, with puppets and adults living together. However, unlike Sesame Street, these puppets are very naughty. There songs are primarily "adult content", with titles like "The Internet is for Porn," "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," and "It Sucks to Be Me." Lyrics from the racist song that had me roaring "Ethnic jokes may be uncouth, but you laugh because they're based on truth."



The puppeteers are visible on stage, which I only found distracting for about five minutes. Soon I found that they blended right in with their puppets. There is an art to it in that they position their bodies just as the puppet would be, seeming to give them a bottom half. They also use spot on facial expressions, making you imagine that the puppet's face is doing more than just opening and closing their mouth.

The cast is small, which allowed you to bond with each of the characters. I especially loved the "Bad Idea Bears," who spoke in adorable high pitched voices. The bears tried to convince the other puppets to spend all their money on beer and play drinking games with Long Island Iced Tea. My least favorite character was the superintendent, Gary Coleman. The whole has-been-child-actor thing has been overdone.

If you get the opportunity, see this show!! It will be in Chicago next month.

5 comments:

Carrie said...

I'm so glad you liked it! What did you think of the puppet sex scene? Hilarious!!! My favorite part of Everyone's a Litte Bit Racist is when Christmas Eve sings

The Jews have all
The money
And the whites have all
The power.
And I'm always in taxi-cab
With driver who no shower!
Evlyone's a ritter bit lacist!

Patty Ann said...

Did you buy the soundtrack cd? I love the song "I'm not wearing underwear today."

Anonymous said...

I've never seen or heard of this before you blog Ang, but I really want to see this now!!!

Matt Stratton said...

I could be wrong, but I think the Chicago run of Avenue Q sold out in about ten seconds.

I love the show (I've seen it twice on Broadway). "The Internet Is For Porn" is probably the most famous song from it, but it's one of my least favorite (it doesn't have staying power; after a few times of hearing it you find it less and less amusing). "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" is my favorite.

Matt Stratton said...

Now that you've seen AQ, you'll appreciate Avenue Jew. It was a special performance for a World AIDS Day benefit with the casts of Fiddler and AQ.