At the 2004 Tony Awards, most pundits predicted Wicked would walk away with the trophy for Best Musical. But the big winner that night was Avenue Q, a musical comedy by newcomers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx about a group of New Yorkers — some human, some puppet — facing financial and personal woes.
There may be puppets onstage, but this is definitely not Sesame Street. These foul-mouthed, sex-crazed cuties don’t sing about learning the alphabet or counting to ten. They’re far more interested in harmonizing about the humor of racism, the joys of pornography and the magic of finding pleasure in someone else’s misfortunes. The hilarious and raunchy book by Jeff Whitty is also heartfelt and truthful. The main character, a doe-eyed puppet named Princeton, finds himself a new college graduate without a single job prospect; the musical’s honest look at unemployment is probably more relevant today than it was in pre-recession 2004. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Through July 28. Country Playhouse, 12802 Queensbury.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: July 12. Continues through July 28, 2012