Avenue Q is a musical conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics, and directed by Jason Moore. The book is by Jeff Whitty. The show was produced by and opened at the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre in March 2003. The production transferred to Broadway in July 2003 and won several Tony Awards, including the award for Best Musical. The show has spawned a 2005 Las Vegas production, a 2006 West End production and various international productions. An Australian national tour began in June 2009 and will end in June 2010.
The show is largely inspired by (and is in the style of) Sesame Street ; most of the characters in the show are puppets (operated by actors onstage), the set depicts several tenements on a rundown street in an Outer Borough of New York City, both the live characters and puppet characters sing, and short animated video clips are played as part of the story.
Several characters are recognizably parodies of classic Sesame Street characters: for example, the roommates Rod and Nicky are versions of Sesame Street' s Bert and Ernie, Trekkie Monster is based on Cookie Monster. However, the characters are in their twenties and thirties and face adult problems instead of those faced by children of varying ages, thus making the show more suited for the adults who grew up with and worked on Sesame Street . Four of the original cast members (John Tartaglia, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Jennifer Barnhart and Rick Lyon) had worked on Sesame Street before.
The characters additionally use profanity in their dialogue (both spoken and sung), and the songs concern adult themes such as sexual intercourse and drugs. A recurring theme is the central character's search for a "purpose". Since the original cast recording was released, the song "The Internet Is for Porn" has become particularly popular on websites such as YouTube. According to the official site, the musical is appropriate for both adults and mature teenagers.
Avenue Q was initially developed at the 2002 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
After a run lasting more than six years and over 2,500 performances, the Broadway production of Avenue Q closed on September 13, 2009. The production ranked as the 20th longest running show in Broadway history at the time of its closing, and still holds that position today. Moments after the final Broadway performance ended, producer Kevin McCollum announced that Avenue Q will transfer to New World Stages for another Off-Broadway run.
Background
The show is explicitly a homage to the PBS children's television program Sesame Street . Both Marx and puppet designer/original cast member Rick Lyon have worked for Sesame Street , as have the other puppeteers in the original cast. Unlike Sesame Street , Avenue Q openly addresses adult topics such as racism, pornography, and homosexuality; in fact, because of its adult language and content and "full puppet nudity" (including puppet sex), the show specifically disclaims any connection to either Sesame Workshop (formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop) or The Jim Henson Company. In an interview with Britain's The Times , addressing the question of potential conflicts with Henson, Marx claimed, “During early previews in the States we invited Jim Henson's widow and children and they could see that what we were doing was an homage and love letter to 'Sesame Street.'”
The characters who are not puppets relate to the puppets, rather than to the actors holding them. The puppets also speak directly to each other and never to the actors operating them (although at the end of "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", Gary Coleman puts his hands on the shoulders of Kate Monster's puppeteer). During the course of the show, a puppet character may be operated by more than one of the actor-operators, although the same actor creates the voice for a particular puppet even if he or she is not holding the puppet at the time. The puppeteers wear nondescript black/gray clothing while the puppets and the three human characters (Brian, Christmas Eve and Gary Coleman) are dressed in bright colors.
Plot overview
Setting
As stated in the Broadway Playbill , the scene is a fictional street located "in an outer-outer borough of New York City." Manhattan, the center of New York City, has Avenues A, B, C, and D, making up the Alphabet City neighborhood. Alternately, Avenue Q could be in the Midwood and Gravesend area of Brooklyn, where there are also Avenues A, B, C, etc. all the way up to Avenue Z, with a few exceptions. One of the exceptions is Avenue Q; the street between Avenue P and Avenue R is known as Quentin Road, named for Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. The Q subway train, whose symbol used to be a Q in an orange circle resembling the Avenue Q logo, travels through this neighborhood. However, the authors have stated that Avenue Q is fictional and is not related to this or any other particular street.
Act One
The story starts off with Princeton, a recent college graduate, looking for an affordable apartment in New York City whilst attempting to find his purpose in life ("What Do You Do with a BA in English?"). At Avenue Q, we meet a group of neighbors who live on that street: Kate Monster, an assistant kindergarten teacher who is currently single; Nicky and Rod, two long-time roommates; Brian, an unemployed comedian; Christmas Eve, Brian's Japanese-American fiancée, a therapist with no clients; and Gary Coleman, former child star of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes , now the apartment superintendent. They all argue about whose life is worse ("It Sucks to Be Me"), and all agree that Coleman has the hardest life. Princeton arrives and takes an apartment, and everyone welcomes him to the block.
The following afternoon, Rod finds himself alone and begins reading his favorite book, "Broadway Musicals of the 1940s," when he is interrupted by Nicky, who wants to share a story about a gay man he met on the subway. Rod gets defensive at the mention of homosexuality, and Nicky assures his roommate that he would have no problem accepting Rod's sexuality ("If You Were Gay").
The job that Princeton had lined up is eliminated, sending him on a search for his purpose in life. He finds a penny minted in his birthyear (which, given the debut of the musical, is hinted to be 1981)— a lucky omen which inspires him to continue searching for his purpose in life ("Purpose"). Everyone explains their purpose in life, while Gary is afraid he has already fulfilled his purpose and from that point it will be a slow walk to the grave. Kate says that she wants to open a school especially for monsters. When Princeton asks whether she and Trekkie Monster are related, Kate is offended at the implication that all monsters must be related, calling him racist. Princeton notes that her dream of a monster school is also exclusionary. Everyone comes in to join the song and reveal their own prejudices ("Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"). Afterwards, Princeton is approached by the Bad Idea Bears, two innocent-looking teddy bears who distract him from finding his purpose and convince him to spend the money he got from his parents on a case of beer.
Kate receives a phone call from her boss, the unpleasant, humorless Mrs. Thistletwat, telling her that she has heart transplant surgery scheduled for the next day, and needs Kate to teach the morning class, allowing her to teach whatever subject she likes. Kate, excited at the opportunity, plans to teach about the Internet, but Trekkie Monster cuts in claiming that the Internet is only good for pornography. Kate indignantly claims that the Internet can be used for other things besides porn, but Trekkie Monster calls upon the other men of Avenue Q (Brian, Gary, Rod and Princeton). Despite Kate's argument that the four use non-pornography sites such as eBay and Amazon.com, they all agree that the Internet is, in fact, for porn ("The Internet is for Porn"), leaving Kate flustered and embarrassed. Afterward, Princeton comes over to deliver a mixtape, confirming her suspicions that he has a crush on her ("Mix Tape").
Princeton invites Kate to the Around the Clock Café on a date (a well-known East Village haunt) that night to see a "singer everybody's going to see", who is revealed to be Lucy the Slut.
At the café, Brian performs the opening act ("I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today") and introduces Lucy the Slut, who performs a seductive cabaret number ("Special"). Kate refrains from drinking at first, as she has her important teaching assignment in the morning, but the Bad Idea Bears suggest that they have some "harmless" Long Island Iced Teas (Absinthe Daiquiris in the London show) and play drinking games. While Kate retrieves a round of drinks, Lucy tells Princeton that when he's ready for a real woman, she'll be around. The Bad Idea Bears convince Princeton to take the tipsy Kate home and have sex. Unbeknownst to them, Brian and Christmas Eve are also having sex. Other tenants ask Gary Coleman to tell the wild lovers to quiet down, but Gary refuses, breaking into a soul-inspired number with the Bad Idea Bears as backing vocalists ("You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)"). A sleepless Rod hears Nicky talking in his sleep about his love for Rod, and is jubilant that his secret c
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