To quote the musical Avenue Q, “Everything in life is only for now.” But for this Tony Award-winning show, its tenure in New York City seems to be everlasting. Earlier this week, on July 31, Avenue Q celebrated the 13th anniversary of its groundbreaking run.
Avenue Q, as described in its press notes, is the “hilarious and internationally-acclaimed musical about a group of 20-somethings — people and puppets alike — who move to New York with big dreams and tiny bank accounts. Together they live as neighbors on a street in New York as they try to discover their purpose in life.”
Sort of a Sesame Street for the adult crowd, the show features a cast of characters ranging from Kate Monster to Gary Coleman, alongside a score filled with such memorable hits as “It Sucks To Be Me,” “Schadenfreude,” “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” and “I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today.”
The musical originally opened Off-Broadway in 2003, and then re-opened on Broadway just a few months later. It received critical acclaim instantly and went on to beat out Wicked for the 2004 Best Musical Tony Award, along with winning Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical.
After running on Broadway at the Golden Theater for six years, the show moved back Off-Broadway in 2009, where it has played to audiences at New World Stages ever since. Tickets for Avenue Q range from $75.50 to $95.50, and can be purchased directly from the box office.
Though the production, which is directed by Jason Moore, has remained basically the same throughout its Broadway and Off-Broadway run, one line has kept up with the times. In the show’s finale, the original production assured 2003 audiences that, like everything else in life, “George Bush is only for now.”
In the years since the Bush presidency, the line has been updated to include everything from the BP oil spill to Glenn Beck and Prop 8. The line was last updated in November 2015, and current audiences can now take solace in the fact that — like those references that have come before — Donald Trump, too, “is only for now.”
Avenue Q features a book by Jeff Whitty and music and lyrics by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez (whose later successes include The Book of Mormon and Frozen). Currently, the cast stars Elizabeth Ann Berg as Kate Monster, Ben Durocher as Princeton/Rod, and Jason Jacoby as Nicky/Trekkie Monster, along with Grace Choi, Nicholas Kohn, Danielle K. Thomas, Kerri Brackin, Jed Resnick, Katie Boren, Michael Liscio, Jr. and Imari Hardon.
More information can be found at AvenueQ.com.
This post is sponsored by TiqIQ
