You live on Avenue Q!!!
Yesterday I attended the opening night of the Brazilian version of the hit Broadway musical "Avenue Q". And it was simply AMAZING! The show had me rolling on the floor (well, not literally ^^') with laughter. All the songs adaptations were extremely witty and inspired. My favourite one was, by far, Se você fosse gay (If you were gay). The guys playing Nick and Rod were hilarious and I was pleasently surprised to see that Fred Silveria (the guy playing Nick/ Trekkie Monster), who had previously been Freddy in My Fair Lady and Tony in West Side Story, was doing such a great job with character so different from what I'm used seeing him playing.
Another major highlight was Cláudia Netto, who played Japaneuza (Christmas Eve). Even her name was a great pun (Japanese in portuguese feminie case is Japonesa and Neusa is a rather unusual girls' name)! I cracked up when, during the money song, after realizing that the audience contribuitions had been rather meek (one chocolate bonbon and candy), she turned to us and said, in the most impressing portuguese-with-japanese-accent ever and said "Bunch of cheapskates! All of you were invited or payed half the price, didn't you?" (about paying half the prince: students and senior citzens are entitle to pay only half the price of any ticket the buy anywhere in Brazil. They say this is killing Theater because the audience is mostly made of students and senior citzens). Everybody in the thater started laughing when she said that! (guilty as we were, there were a lot of senior citzens and students there XD)
One thing that really surprised me was the fact that the use the Gary Coleman character was rather effective. Even tough nobody seemed to remember Diff'rent Strokes, the had him explaning the he was once, quoting the west end production lyrics, the cutest little black kid on TV. It was quite funny seeing how bothered the other characters were when he said that for the 1312165146th time XD
So, after the show, we went to demachi (XD). Stage door is always so fun! We were greeted by the directors of the show, who is an active member of the fan community on the internet and then we saw that Jeff Whitty, the guy who wrote the book of Avenue Q (and got a Tony for it!) was there too! Oh, the shock! We talked to him as soon as we realized who he was (were...not really sure here ^^') and took pictures with him!
(that's me on the right, btw XD)
It was a great night! I had such a great time! And as soon as I see the much hyped production of Hamlet that´s opening in town next week, I'm planing to go to Avenue Q as many times as possible!
Another major highlight was Cláudia Netto, who played Japaneuza (Christmas Eve). Even her name was a great pun (Japanese in portuguese feminie case is Japonesa and Neusa is a rather unusual girls' name)! I cracked up when, during the money song, after realizing that the audience contribuitions had been rather meek (one chocolate bonbon and candy), she turned to us and said, in the most impressing portuguese-with-japanese-accent ever and said "Bunch of cheapskates! All of you were invited or payed half the price, didn't you?" (about paying half the prince: students and senior citzens are entitle to pay only half the price of any ticket the buy anywhere in Brazil. They say this is killing Theater because the audience is mostly made of students and senior citzens). Everybody in the thater started laughing when she said that! (guilty as we were, there were a lot of senior citzens and students there XD)
One thing that really surprised me was the fact that the use the Gary Coleman character was rather effective. Even tough nobody seemed to remember Diff'rent Strokes, the had him explaning the he was once, quoting the west end production lyrics, the cutest little black kid on TV. It was quite funny seeing how bothered the other characters were when he said that for the 1312165146th time XD
So, after the show, we went to demachi (XD). Stage door is always so fun! We were greeted by the directors of the show, who is an active member of the fan community on the internet and then we saw that Jeff Whitty, the guy who wrote the book of Avenue Q (and got a Tony for it!) was there too! Oh, the shock! We talked to him as soon as we realized who he was (were...not really sure here ^^') and took pictures with him!
(that's me on the right, btw XD)
It was a great night! I had such a great time! And as soon as I see the much hyped production of Hamlet that´s opening in town next week, I'm planing to go to Avenue Q as many times as possible!