Let's all just embrace the fact that puppets now rule our world. From burlesque tributes to the Muppets, to the actual Muppet wizards putting on saucy shows just for an audience waaay past childhood, to the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy night with Ed Helms and Seth Morris, those little bits of felt and googly eyes and strings dominate. We wouldn't be at all surprised to wake up one morning and find that we'd gone through some sort of Muppet-y metamorphosis overnight (we just hope we'd be all polka-dotted and furry).
And now positively puppet-laden, mean-and-lean Broadway juggernaut "Avenue Q" is back in Southern California. Like everything we mentioned above, "Avenue Q" is made for the legal-to-vote-and-up set, so tots should be home with the babysitter. If you're tempted, note that songs like "It Sucks to Be Me" clearly set this humorous, did-they-say-that? musical apart from the boppy-kid-happy fare. In other words, grown-ups only. Grown-ups with a healthy sense of humor and irony and a desire to laugh at the general everyday exhaustion brought on by complicated, often less-than-fulfilling modern life.
We're not sure where we'll see puppets next, but we're betting it will be soon, it will be fierce, it will be extraordinary and deeply, deeply weird.
"Avenue Q"
Segerstrom Hall at OCPAC
March 31-April 12
$20-$70
600 Town Center, Costa Mesa
714-556-ARTS
