Graduating college, finding an apartment, one you can afford, securing a job, one you are qualified to perform, and growing up are all the responsibilities and requirements facing an anxious young puppet named Princeton. He starts his search for housing on New York City's Avenue A and by the time he reaches the 17th street of possibilities, he is not sure he will ever find a roof to call his own.
Happily for Princeton and for the audience, he finds the perfect place on "Avenue Q," a delightful puppet/people graced musical with music and lyrics by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, with book by Jeff Whitty. Center Stage in Shelton will be entertaining Princeton and his friends until Sunday, June 15 and you don't want to miss their highly special and spirited world. It’s pure delicious fun!
If you’ve grown up on “Sesame Street” and call Mr. Rogers a friend, and you’re a mature teenager or older, this is the show for you. “Avenue Q” is a musical that began life at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford at an International Musical Conference and went on to great acclaim. Now the puppets and their puppet masters are ready for some colorful and off- color entertainment.
Pop over to Center Stage for this smash-hit Broadway musical about making your way in life. Jacob Marcus stars spectacularly as Princeton, a recent college graduate, with big dreams and a small wallet. He finds his way to Avenue Q because it’s the only street in the Big Apple he can afford. Soon he determines he must find and identify a PURPOSE in life.
There he meets some unique neighbors, friendly and not so much, like Kate Monster (Cora Welsh), a cute kindergarten teaching assistant, a possibly gay couple Rod (Isaiah Rodriguez ) and Nicky (Hunter Smith ), Lucy Slut (Maya Jennings Daley ), Trekkie Monster (David Kaminski), an internet addict, Christmas Eve (Perseis J. Grant), a therapist, Brian (Justin Zenchuk), an out-of-work comedian, two bad bears (Alyssa Grosso) and their plucky landlord Gary Coleman (Briana Dawson).
Follow the life and loves, the downs and ups, of this bunch of young adults as they work their way to find a job, a companion and a purpose, with a lot of singing and dancing along their journey, thanks to the skilled direction and choreography of Betsy Kelso.
With life-size puppets personally created by the cast as well as people, “Avenue Q” celebrates the angst of growing up and facing responsibilities, challenges like how to get and keep employment and how to get a date, in addition to more intense issues like full-puppet nudity, alcohol and internet porn and gender identity. Set designers Scott Sheldon and Vinny LaVigna add a special artistic touch and musical director Paul Keegan leads a super live band belting out hit songs like “It Sucks to Be Me,” “Everybody’s a Little Racist,” “If You Were Gay,” "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?,” and “Live on Avenue Q."
For tickets ($20-39), call the Center Stage, 54 Grove Street, Shelton at 203-225-6079 or online at centerstageshelton.org or boxoffice@centerstageshelton.org. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., and 6:30 p.m. Because of the adult themes, the show is best suited for ages 14 and up. Check out Center Stage’s summer camps for acting in June and July and their next production of their 20th anniversary season “Sister Act” coming July 18 to 27, where a night club singer witnesses a mob murder and has to hide out as a nun.
Laugh as you stroll along with Princeton as he bops down "Avenue Q," the show that won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical, and hope that he finds his purpose along the way.
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