16
Apr
| MORE THAN AVENUE CUTE |
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| Written by Jack Ebling | |
| Wednesday, 16 April 2008 | |
 Imagine an R-rated “Sesame Street” or The Muppets OD’ed on Viagra.
Add a fantastic score and some terrific staging, and what do you have? It all depends on your tastes and your tolerance for raunchy dialogue. It’s safe to say there has never been a show quite like Avenue Q in Wharton Center. The Tony Award-winning musical had patrons laughing and singing on their way to the parking ramp. It also produced one of the strangest reactions I’ve ever seen in a curtain call. Some leaped to their feet the second the final notes ended. The song was “For Now.” The show was for them. Others stood at various stages as the puppets and people took turns taking bows. And more than a few stayed seated, perhaps wondering why they had come. As Kate Monster had tried to explain, “There’s a fine, fine line between love and a waste of time.” Or as Christmas Eve sang, “The more you ruv someone, they more they make you clazy.” It helped to have heard the soundtrack before. If you did, you understood the appeal of a show that beat Wicked for best-of-Broadway honors four years ago. It also helped if you checked all hints of prudishness at the door. Avenue Q isn’t for kids and isn’t for everyone. But those who liked it could be heard from the last row of the balcony. Many will be back there between now and Sunday. There’s plenty to see. The puppeteers are brilliant. The music is memorable. And the lessons to be learned are timeless. At the intermission one woman within earshot asked her companion, “Does the program say anything about ‘adult content?’” I had to smile - a clear case of “Schadenfreude.” For non-Germans that’s taking immense pleasure from others’ pain. |
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