Avenue Q and Sesame Street (SMTiger's fan fiction series)

Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. The show won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show has been praised for its approach to themes of racism, homosexuality, and internet pornography.

The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at the Vineyard Theatre, co-produced by the Vineyard Theatre and The New Group. In July of that same year the show moved to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, where it ran until 2009, playing for over 2,500 performances. It then transferred to the off-Broadway New World Stages, where it played until 2019. Major productions have been staged in Las Vegas and the West End, and the musical has been staged and toured in several countries around the world. A school-friendly script has been produced.

"Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content"

Characters
Note: These descriptions come from the Characters section in the script.

Puppet characters

 * Princeton: "A fresh-faced kid just out of college."
 * Kate Monster: "A kindergarten teaching assistant, a bit older than Princeton."
 * Nicky: "A bit of a slacker, who lives with Rod."
 * Rod: "A Republican investment banker with a secret." Whitney Matheson of USA Today described Rod as "New York's most famous (and perhaps only) gay Republican puppet."
 * Trekkie Monster: "A reclusive creature obsessed with the Internet."
 * Lucy: "A vixenish vamp with a dangerous edge."
 * The Bad Idea Bears: "two snuggly, cute teddy-bear types."
 * Mrs. Lavinia Thistletwat: "Ancient, Kate's boss."

Humans

 * Brian: "A laid-back guy engaged to Christmas Eve." Brian is named after Brian Yorkey, who played the role in the original workshop presentations.
 * Christmas Eve: "A therapist who moved here from Japan."
 * Gary Coleman: "Yes, that Gary Coleman. He lives on the Avenue, too. He's the superintendent."

Instrumentation[edit]
The musical is scored for bass (acoustic and electric), drums/percussion (drum kit, bell tree, bongos, china cymbal, cowbell, egg shaker, finger cymbals, ice bell, mark tree, ratchet, siren whistle, slide whistle, tambourine, temple blocks, triangle, vibraslap, and wood block), guitars (acoustic, electric, and banjo), reeds (Bb clarinet, alto sax, flute), and two electronic keyboards.

Other Avenue Q songs[edit]
Nine additional songs were written for Avenue Q or associated promotions, but are not part of the original Broadway production itself.


 * "Tear It Up and Throw It Away": Originally performed early in the first act, between "What Do You Do with a BA in English?" and "If You Were Gay"; Kate is called for jury duty, and Nicky advises her to ignore the summons, pretending it was lost in the mail. ("Your civic duty? Who gives a doody?") Kate tears up the summons and is ticketed for littering. The number was cut during Off-Broadway rehearsals because it had no relevance to the plot, and because, according to Stephanie D'Abruzzo, there was no judicious way to dispose of the paper scraps, which remained onstage throughout Act One. The cut came so late that early promotional materials included references to the song, and its main melody can be heard underscoring dialog in "The Money Song" on the original cast recording. It was included on a CD that accompanied the original souvenir program but not on the cast recording. An original audio clip is available on YouTube.
 * "Time": Originally performed in a sequence where Nicky enjoys his time in the bathroom as Rod begs him to finish up so he can use the bathroom, and becomes increasingly distressed as the song continues. Eventually Rod decides to go use the Starbucks restroom, only for Nicky to hear him and ask to come with him. The song was cut during the development process but was resurrected for a video created for the London production. This video was originally shown on the on-stage video screens during intermission, just prior to the second act curtain; Nicky (Simon Lipkin) sits on the toilet in the theatre's men's room at intermission, singing about all the "chores" he is getting done between acts. Several audience members waiting to use the stall become increasingly annoyed. British comedian Matt Lucas has a cameo role. The song was cut during early previews for unspecified reasons, but remained on the CD that accompanied the souvenir brochure, and was shown at the final West End performance on 30 October 2010. A video can be viewed on YouTube.
 * "Rod's Dilemma": Written for Tony Award voters, this song spoofs Avenue Q 's competition for the 2004 Tony for Best Musical, and the entire Tony voting process. In the Rotary Club presidential election, Rod cannot decide whether to vote for the guy he has a crush on (symbolizing The Boy from Oz), a wealthy man (Wicked), or an old friend (Caroline, or Change). The neighbors advise him against voting "for your friends, 'cause they say you should vote for the candidate you think is good." The song was a part of the production's successful Tony Award campaign, called "Q '04 Now! Vote Your Heart!". An audio cut is available on YouTube.
 * "It Sucks to Be Me" (reprise): This song is sung by Princeton immediately after Act Two begins. It was not part of the original show or original cast recording. The song was first added to the Las Vegas production, and subsequently became part of the current off-Broadway show and other unofficial productions.
 * "Only in Vegas": This parody of Las Vegas-style show tunes was written to promote the Las Vegas production. It featured Rick Lyon operating a Steve Wynn puppet, who tells the cast of Avenue Q how happy they will be in Las Vegas. The song was performed on the Regis and Kelly syndicated television show and in some press and media events.
 * "Rod's Christmas": Found on the CD Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure, Vol. 5: Rod headlines at the "Don't Tell Daddy's Cabaret and Night Club" (a parody of the New York piano bar Don't Tell Mama, which is named for a song from the musical Cabaret). Rod sings that Christmas is the time of year where he can combine his two great loves, "Christmas carols and show tunes."
 * "The Holi-daze": Found on the CD Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure, Vol. 8. Written by Michael Patrick Walker and Phoebe Kreutz (who both worked on the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of Avenue Q), the members of the company sing about how they cope with the stresses and problems of the holiday season. The song does not feature any characters from the show but was recorded by several of the original Avenue Q cast and band members, and was sub-titled "Drinkin' Our Way Through the Holidays".
 * "Christmas": "Purpose" with new, festive lyrics. Written by the company of Avenue Q/London for Theatrecares' "West End Christmas" charity event. It is on a special CD, but can also be heard at Jon Robyns's Web site.
 * "How Much Do the People in Your Neighborhood Make?": A parody on the classic Sesame Street song, "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood", the song was written very early in the show's history, and dropped when the original television show format was abandoned in favor of a stage production.

Puppet development
The Avenue Q puppets, which cost up to $10,000 each, and require up to 120 hours of hand fabrication per character, were designed and built by original cast member Rick Lyon. Lyon's company, The Lyon Puppets, built and maintained the puppets used in all North American productions, and several of the international productions, including those from the UK, Australia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, while supervising the construction of those from the Finnish and Swedish productions. Their unusually sturdy construction, with double-stitching, reinforced seams, steel boning, and custom fake fur and feathers, is necessitated by the rigors of an eight-shows-per-week performance schedule.

Three distinct types of puppets are used in the show:

Rod puppets
Single Rod: Princeton, Kate Monster

Double Rod: Rod, Lucy, The Bad Idea Bears

Rod puppets consist of a head and a torso with two arms, at least one of which is movable for gestures. "Single rod" puppets have one movable arm controlled by one rod, with the other arm "posed" in a permanent gesture or attached to the puppet's torso; both arms are movable on "double rod" puppets, each controlled by a separate rod. The puppeteer controls the puppet's head and mouth with his or her dominant hand, and holds one or both rods in the other hand.

Live-hands puppets
Nicky, Trekkie Monster, Mrs. Thistletwat

Live-hands puppets require two puppeteers, each of whom contributes one hand and arm dressed with a long sleeve and glove matching the puppet's costume, which become the arms and hands of the puppet. The speaking puppeteer controls the puppet's left hand, head, and mouth, while the second, silent operator controls the right hand. (Sides are sometimes reversed if the speaking puppeteer is left-handed.) During the show, one puppeteer will sometimes exit to take over another puppet, leaving the live-hands puppet with a single operator and only one functioning hand. In a variation, one or both of the puppet's hands can be attached to its torso to permit operation by a single puppeteer.

Mechanized and free hand puppets
Mechanized puppets are not directly controlled by the puppeteer's hand. Instead, they are controlled by a concealed trigger that when pulled causes the mouth to open. The motion is similar to a toy grabber. Princeton's cardboard boxes, also used in "Purpose", are examples of such puppets. Free hand puppets do not have rods, mechanisms, or live-hands for their arms. While their head controls are the same as a rod puppet, the hands are moved by physically picking them up and moving them. In the show Ricky is the only puppet with this design because it is intended for use by a left handed puppeteer.

History
Jeff Marx met Robert Lopez at a songwriting class at the BMI Workshop. As part of the workshop, the two decided to write songs for a speculative Muppet movie based on "Hamlet" called Kermit, Prince of Denmark. Encouraged by the class response to their songs, they decided to have someone actually performing a puppet present a song, since they were writing them for puppets. Through mutual friends, they contacted Rick Lyon, who agreed to perform Kermit singing a song in their class. He performed a Kermit replica puppet while sitting on a stool in full view of the audience. This visible puppeteer approach became a key component of Avenue Q. "Kermit, Prince of Denmark" was pitched to, but was ultimately turned down by, the Henson family. The duo then decided to create a new show, with original puppet characters, which was a parody of Sesame Street. Lyon created the puppets. Avenue Q was originally conceived as a show for television, but following a public reading presented for potential producers/investors in 2000, Broadway producers Robyn Goodman and Jeffrey Seller expressed interest in developing it into a theatrical property.