Hey folks.
I'm just curious, how many people here have actually seen Avenue Q, Broadway's Tony award winning adult spoof of Seasame Street?
I know most of you have probably heard its most infamous song The Internet Is For Porn, which of course has ended up being a meme, with plenty of AMVs of the song on YouTube with the song dubbed over cartoon clips.
With the show celebrating its fifth anniversary this July, I thought I'd make this thread with show info and video clips of the actual performers so you guys who have heard the songs but haven't seen the show can see them in action rather than listening to the cast recordings on the countless memes that are out there.
Since Avenue Q opened those five years ago, its continued to be a smash hit. It won the 2004 Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Book, and Best Musicial, beating out the popular musical Wicked(Everybody expected Wicked to win, and this ended up being one of the major upsets in the history of the Tonys)
Its spawned an equally succesful run in London(Originally it was only going have a limited run in the summer of 2006, but it gained such a following there it's still going on), and it's currently winding down its first National Tour. A Spanish version recently opened in Mexico, and French and Russian versions are opening in Paris and Moscow by the end of the year.
A fun fact: The puppets in Avenue Q were designed by a guy named Rick Lyon, who studied under and worked for Jim Henson himself on Seasame Street. That's the reason why the puppets in the show look like they came from the Henson Company. In fact, they look so similar to Henson puppets they have to have a disclaimer in their program stating that the Henson Company has no affilation with them and they are not responsible for the content!
Along with buliding the puppets, Lyon was also part of the original cast when the show first opened. And you've heard The Internet Is For Porn then you've heard Lyon before; that's him doing Trekkie's voice! Lyon's no longer performing in the show, but he's still involved with building and repairing the puppets for all the different productions of the show.(He also recently got back from Mexico giving puppetry classes to the Spanish actors).
Part of the reason I'm attached to Avenue Q is that one point last year I was going through a serious depression phase. I heard the show's closing number for the first time, where they say important incetives to live by, such as "Nothing lasts, life goes on" and "Don't stress, relax, take life one day at a time". That song did help me through my depression, because it applied to the troubles I was going through.(I won't get into it, but I had it pretty rough last year for a while).
I did finally get to see it three weeks ago when it came around here, and I really enjoyed it. Even though the best stuff like Internet is for Porn have been spoiled through all the memes(Personally, that song never gets old for me), people still laugh their asses off at it and it still continues to be a real show-stopper. And there's still plenty of great humor in-between the songs that you don't hear on the soundtrack, which I won't spoil.
Despite the adult subject matter and having songs with titles such as "Loud as the Hell you Want When You're Makin' Love"(Which features half-bodied puppet sex....yes you read that right), "If You Were Gay", and "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," the show actually isn't dirty all the way through, and it has a lot of heart to it. You can find yourself getting really attached to the characters. But you kind of have to see the show to really appericate them.
Here are some videos of the actual performers(These are home videos taken from when the cast does public appearances, since you can't obivously shoot video when in the theater. All but one of them are of the London cast since they get out and do more apperances than the US casts):
The Internet is for Porn(Performed by the London cast at the Sing London event at Dress Circle. For some reason the guy split it into two parts. Kate's done by an understudy here and she screws up her lines at one point! Trekkie is done here by the talented Simon Lipkin, who kicks all sorts of ass):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4mrlq1cw2uQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8vmWOsIPF60
Porn Changes Everything(Performed by Simon at Sing London. This isn't actually one of the songs from the show, but a parody that Simon did. This is just hilarous, and it once again shows how much Simon rocks):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WuhOWDHMn1Q
The Avenue Q Theme(Performed by the London cast at Sing London):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WuhOWDHMn1Q
If You Were Gay(Performed by Simon and Jon Robyns of the London cast at West End Live):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nenGgXPHFtw
Everyone's a Little Bit Racist(Again, done by the London cast at West End Live):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA
It Sucks To Be Me/Special(Performed by the London cast at the Royal Variety Performance):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWShlg1bRk
For Now(Performed by the current Broadway cast):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_STDQyqiHXU
The Day Out in London Series(A series of funny videos that the London cast made exclusively for YouTube):
Part 1(Rod and Nicky in London):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4znJU_xjMU
Part 2(Kate and Princeton's Date in London-Contains clothed puppet sex!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQF7o9ejSy0
Part 3(Trekkie and Lucy's Soho Romp, Contains a puppet lap dance!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19LOAM2uBuQ