There’s almost no chance I would’ve seen Avenue Q if it weren’t for the Scrubs episode My Musical. We loved the episode and, most importantly, thought the songs were incredibly funny and on target with the characters. That’s pretty hard to do, and we wanted to know who was behind the music. Turns out that the folks who wrote Avenue Q worked on the episode. In fact, the female lead in the original cast, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, was in the episode as the patient. After doing a bit of reading on Avenue Q, seeing a number of positive reviews online, and combined with Heidi’s mandate that we go away this weekend, we decided to drive down to NYC and see Avenue Q at the Golden on Broadway. We were happy we did.
It would be fair to describe this as the most unusual musical I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a decent number both as a theatergoer or working on student productions in high school and college. The musical centers around a cast of muppet-like characters who live out on Avenue Q, a street far outside of Manhattan “where the rents are actually affordable.” While most of the main characters are muppets, the actors who manipulate and voice them are visible and as much a part of the cast and action as the muppets. It takes a few minutes to get used to looking at both faces at the same time, but after that, the setup actually just works. It works really well, actually. The actors are exceptionally good at manipulating the puppets. There’s a lot to appreciate just in the skill with which they animate the puppets while singing and dancing. On top of that, almost all of the puppeteering cast voice multiple muppets. This is often accomplished by one actor manipulating the puppet in rhythm to the primary actor singing the part. It sounds confusing but again, it’s pulled off brilliantly.
The story is a fairly typical coming of age story. In fact, it was fairly predictable. The music wasn’t all that original either. Neither of these things matter, though, as the book (the lyrics) was incredibly funny and smart. It’s also raunchy and crass in ways that easily bring back Team America memories (though this is much better). Heck, two muppets even have sex on stage. Unlike Team America, the raunch and the sex, well, everything are actually are funny.
The guys behind the musical and even some of the original cast spent time working on Sesame Street. This “inspiration” is evident throughout the musical. Two characters are obviously reminiscent of Bert and Ernie and two large monitors provide Sesame Street-like transitions between scenes, albeit in a more adult way. You’ll recognize a few of the sketches from Sesame Street, the Electric Company and other children’s shows of our childhood.
The show is a bit pricey (orchestra and front mezzanine run $101.25), but it’s worth it. Odds are you’ve heard one of the songs before, because I’ve (unknowingly) linked up a video in the past. If you’ve watched the Internet is for Porn video, you’ve heard one of the songs. The song is entirely from Avenue Q (though the video is unrelated to the musical). Enjoy!
If you think that song is any good, you really should see this musical.
(P.S. It should be no surprise that the writers of this musical are potentially collaborating with the folks behind South Park on a new musical. Hopefully, it’s as clever as Avenue Q and South Park and not as stupid as Team America.)