AVENUE Q FEATURES

Entertainment Weekly names AVENUE Q the best show of 2003!
Entertainment Weekly

To call it a ''puppet show'' does it a disservice. '''Sesame Street' for grown-ups'' isn't right either. There's no handy way to describe ''Avenue Q,'' except as the furriest, and one of the funniest, shows you're likely ever to see.
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"So where is the American musical headed? I see two likely paths. One is to simple-minded 'jukebox' shows like 'Mamma Mia!' whose scores are drawn from cheery pop hits of the baby-boom era. The other is to fresher shows like the wickedly funny 'Avenue Q,' which is deliberately aimed at a much younger demographic. 'Avenue Q' is every bit as outrageous as 'The Producers' (where else can you see two puppets have sex on stage?), but its language, both verbal and musical, is wholly contemporary. It's hipper than 'The Producers,' not to mention faster, snarkier and -yes-better."

For those weaned on "Sesame Street," "Avenue Q" is now the hippest destination on Broadway. But don't let the presence of puppets fool you. With musical numbers like "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" and "If You Were Gay," this send-up of political correctness isn't for the kiddies.
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AVENUE Q Selected to Entertainment Weekly's 2003 IT List
Entertainment Weekly

They're cuddly, fuzzy, and often R-rated. When the puppets of Avenue Q -- plus their human pals -- invade the Golden Theatre on July 11, they'll be Broadway's new song-and-dance stars.
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Stephanie D'Abruzzo and Kate Monster

Stephanie D'Abruzzo, in her Main Stem debut, is currently offering two of the finest performances on Broadway. D'Abruzzo is one of the stars of what may be the funniest musical to ever grace the stage: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty's Avenue Q, which began life at Off-Broadway's Vineyard Theatre last season before transferring to its current home, the intimate Golden Theatre. The actress portrays, among others, the boyfriend-searching Kate Monster and the boyfriend-stealing Lucy The Slut, and you might say her work is puppetry perfected.
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Photo: Associated Press

Stigma seems like a natural subject for two people who star in a hit musical that features an Internet porn pirate, a closeted homosexual and a song entitled "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist." But during a recent afternoon break from Broadway's "Avenue Q," it isn't talk of any social taboo that elicits the "s" word. Instead, John Tartaglia and Stephanie D'Abruzzo muse about the preconceptions surrounding their own special brand of theater -- one that has purists and neophytes alike relishing the warmth and fuzziness of make-believe actors.

If there was a Sesame Street inside the city limits of South Park, it'd be called Avenue Q, like the musical with that moniker at the Golden Theatre. The Q, of course, is for Quirky.
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Photo: Liz Liguori

The Q-Files: Jeff Whitty
Next Magazine

Jeff Whitty, the talented playwright who wrote the book for Avenue Q (this summer's freshest new musical), pens a diary of what it's like to move his first show to Broadway.
Brace yourself for ego-driven drama, puppet promiscuity, twentysomething angst and cute gay boys on a rampage-and that's just what happens onstage!

Photo: Christopher Smith NY Times

A Night Out With
The New York Times

Who thought there could be wisdom in a puppet show, much less sentiments like "There's a fine, fine line/Between love and a waste of time" and "Everyone's a little bit racist." The men behind these songs and their Broadway show, "Avenue Q," which opened on Thursday, were inspired by "Sesame Street." But their sensibilities are informed by Stephen Sondheim, "South Park" and, perhaps, Internet stories in which Big Bird goes on a drug-induced rampage.
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Leading Men: John Tartaglia
Playbill.com

John Tartaglia, a gifted and engaging young puppeteer, heads the tiptop cast and gives an astonishing hands-on tour de force as both Princeton, a college grad who’s just moved to Avenue Q, and his next-door neighbor, Rod, a closeted gay Republican whose favorite book is "Broadway Musicals of the 1940s." The 5-foot-11 actor has his hands full as he sings, dances and acts, while carrying his puppets and manipulating their movements.
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Photo: Melanie Stetson

The Puppets Take Manhattan
The Christian Science Monitor

In a packed theater on Broadway, Kate Monster, a fuzzy-faced puppet in a lavender top, laments her nonexistent love life. "Why don't I have a boyfriend?" she sings, in one of the few lyrics that can be printed in this paper. As the song continues, she and the other characters cheerily belt out complaints about being dateless, jobless, and broke.
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Photo: Sara Krulwich/The NY Times

Uneasily, and Surprisingly, 'Avenue Q' and 'Sesame Street' Co-Exist
The New York Times

The line to get into Entertainment Weekly's annual It party last month was long, and getting longer: countless stylish hipsters were massed around the door to the Roxy, stretching down 18th Street, around the corner and up 10th Avenue. When Jeff Marx arrived, however, he headed straight for the entrance and the publicist who was guarding it. Despite his large posse and his nonchalant air, he appeared to be an unlikely candidate for V.I.P. access. For one thing, he was dressed in schlumpy clothes. And for another, most of the members of his posse were puppets.
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First Person: Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx
Broadway.com

Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx Photo: Broadway.com

Meet the writers of Avenue Q, Composers/lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. They received the 2000 Kleban Award for lyrics, BMI's Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement, and the John Lennon Songwriting Competition Award.

Here, the creators of the new off-Broadway musical Avenue Q, discuss (literally) their creative process.