Avenue Q

I fought through the theme park that Times Square has morphed into to see Avenue Q on Broadway last weekend. I don't know what Travis Bickle would make of all the Planet Hollywood/Bubba Gump Fish Company/MTV/ABC neon lights making his well worn frames of pavement surreally brighter than daylight.

I bought the hilarious score last year after hearing about it on Kristin's web site.

What I couldn't have known from the score was how clever the staging was. One person would play 2 puppets and throw their voice across the stage while another actor operated the puppett. They would also express the songs on their own faces - so there was a lot going on to focus on. One internet porn loving monster required two peoplpe to operate when he descended from his 2nd floor apartment and quietly became a benefactor for a new school for monsters.

One of the musical's stand-outs .... Barrett Foa* ... has a pretty slick web site and you can check out pictures of him backstage with famous folks ranging from President Clinton to David Hassellhoff. His blog tends toward the slick marketing side of things. You won't find him recounting about what he had for dinner last nite or anything.

The staging and the set were great. Even the ushers operated with a seasoned mix of jaded/coolness, "4th row down ... skip two, take two .... 6th row - fill em' up".

The 2 large flat panel video monitors that flanked the stage also added another element to the show.. I especially liked an animated transition where the word "purpose" morphed into "propose" and one of the main puppets has a hallucinatory panic attack where he imagines his love rising from behind the Sesame Street like city block like a puppett King Kong.

The show is skipping doing a national tour and will open up a Vegas branch in a specially built theater. The Vegas show will be trimmed somewhat, but will reportedly be the only show on the strip with an intermission. What better time to buy a $3.50 small bottle of water. If this show keeps running for years, as they hope ... I wonder what they will change the line "George Bush" to in the song "For Now", assuming that we get a democratic president elected.

If it ends up being Hillary elected president, she will have already seenthe play.

* Could this possibly be his real name?