Music and Lyrics by Robert and Jeff Marx Book by Jeff Whitty
By this time I had given up on trying to scam my way into a musical and got in the old fashioned way by buying a ticket at the Box Office.
It was an impulse decision to buy a ticket to Avenue Q. I did not regret it. This is Sesame Street for Adults only or the Blue Muppets. It’s very entertaining.
While Hairspray will one day conquer the schools and amateur theatres of America, Avenue Q will steer clear.
Included on the menu of this musical is puppet intercourse and a very funny song called ‘Internet is for Porn’.
Puppets can do things on stage which humans could not get away with.
I heard someone complain that musicals too often these days `are embedded in history and don’t reflect modern day life.
If that is the case Avenue Q is the antidote. This is a musical for Generation X.
It’s set on a street in New York 20 and 30 some things at the crossroads of their life, a comedian who can’t get any gigs, a man looking for a job after leaving college, a merchant banker who can’t accept his homosexuality and a frustrated school teacher looking for love.
In the opening song they complain about how bad their lives are going.
“What do you do with a B.A. in English” and “It sucks to be me”
Some of the characters are played by humans others by humans with their hands up their puppets. ( So to speak)
Like the Lion King you can see the puppeteers and they dance and act in tune with their characters.
We follow the soap opera of their lives, and just as in the joke from Spamalot there is even the Broadway standard of a Jewish reference, this time a wedding between the Jewish comedian and his Korean partner.
Eventually the characters learn that instead of feeling sorry for themselves, the true path to happiness is achieved by helping other people.
Aw shucks.
Why does Avenue Q work?
The creator Robert Lopez says.
“If Avenue Q were just a musical about people living in Queens, it would be too literal and probably pretty boring. Musicals usually need a layer of fantasy to work and the puppets do that for Avenue Q. They make characters, who are actually based on us and our friends, much more interesting and entertaining than we are in real life.”