Hi all Boradwayworld-ers! Hope you've all been keeping well! There may already be a thread on this, but after abit of searching I couldnt find one!
Has anyone out there caught the Avenue Q tour yet. Im going on Thursday and am taking two mates who have never seen the show before, but for my own personal intrest, are there any changes to the tour? What are the cast like? (Some seem abit young) Any line changes, and what is the ending to "For Now" in the "George Bush" slot!
The main thing i'm interested in, is the band set-up the same? I was worried they may have adopted the smaller and cheaper off-broadway orchestrations IE, replace any instrument they can with a piano, which sounds dire!!
Anyway, cheers you beautiful people, and if no one out there has caught this yet, I'll report back after Thursday!
No major changes. I saw it in Bath. Very impressed, but the cast are not great as an ensemble. Singular performances are very strong, especially Chris Thatcher, but things like life outside your apartment are weak because they are quite low energy as a group. Still thoroughly enjoyable. The whole thing just needs a little kick up the backside to be up to the London production's standard.
THEATRE 2016:
Grey Gardens; SwkPlayhouse, Cats; London Palladium, Into the Woods; Royal Exchange, Show Boat; Sheffield Crucible, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Prsicilla Queen of the Desert; UK Tour, Narrative; RWCMD, Mojo; RWCMD, The Barber of Seville; WNO, Rabbit Hole; Hampstead, The Marriage of Figaro; WNO, Figaro Gets a Divorce; WNO, Tom: The Musical; UK Tour
Upcoming: Anything Can Happen; RWCMD, Cysgy'n Brys'ur, Long Day's Journey Into Night; Bristol Old Vic, Only the Brave, The Caretaker; The Old Vic, People Places and Things, Blue/Orange; Young Vic, Bernadette Peters, Carole King, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II
That's what I thought, but I did see the last performance.
THEATRE 2016:
Grey Gardens; SwkPlayhouse, Cats; London Palladium, Into the Woods; Royal Exchange, Show Boat; Sheffield Crucible, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Prsicilla Queen of the Desert; UK Tour, Narrative; RWCMD, Mojo; RWCMD, The Barber of Seville; WNO, Rabbit Hole; Hampstead, The Marriage of Figaro; WNO, Figaro Gets a Divorce; WNO, Tom: The Musical; UK Tour
Upcoming: Anything Can Happen; RWCMD, Cysgy'n Brys'ur, Long Day's Journey Into Night; Bristol Old Vic, Only the Brave, The Caretaker; The Old Vic, People Places and Things, Blue/Orange; Young Vic, Bernadette Peters, Carole King, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II
I saw this tonight and it is pretty much the same as the London production. I do feel it looks rather lost on the Mayflower stage. The cast are young but I think based on the characters they should be, we are just used to them being older. The only one that seemed too young to me was Edward Judge (Brian) but he was great! The George Bush line is now Jedward!
The band was tiny but I didn't realise until curtain call. Just 4 people: Keyboard 1, Keyboard 2, Alto sax / flute / clarinet and drums/percussion. Curtain call was one window each plus the 2 understudy Christmas Eves with puppets and small guitars.
We did have an understudy for Gary, Kayi Ushe, who was really good.
The big problem for me was the TV screens, they were dodgy all the way through and we didn't see the animations for purpose-propose and Intermission.
The Pros to start with -The Cast were incredibly talented -ESPECIALLY the actress playing Kate and Lucy who has a stunning voice -They worked well as an ensemble and they made the show comfortably flow -The band was seriously down-scaled, but unlike the the off-roadway production, you cant tell, with the one exception of during "For Now" there were a few chords that are usually played on guitar that you could clearly hear were being played on a synth, but I can forgive this. -Everything was there and worked, we had no problems with the TV screens and every single set piece was there from London, without a single detail missing!
The Cons - The actor playing Gary coleman forgot a line in the opening. He blanked his "Try having people stopping you to ask you...' which left an awkward silence where the cast were looking round like "WTF?" and then he randomly rushed back in with "What ya talking bout willis" - Jedward is just not a funny line in "For Now"
But that is about it, I loved the way they inserted local references, EG at the end of The Money Song, where the line in London was "Something called a Pound... well that isnt worth very much atall" they has replaced it to (for Southampton) "A Ticket to a Portsmouth Soccer Match..." which recieved a MASSIVE reaction, although my friend did have to explain to me why afterwards! There was one other local reference inserted.... but I cant remember what it was now! There was also a fair bit of ad-libbing (mainly by Trekie monster) but was genius and not OTT!!
In genral, I would HIGHLY recommend this tour, it is 100% up to the standard of the West End production, but it has really cheap ticket prices in most of its touring venues!!!
If this comes near you, I urge you to go, this was my 6th Avenue Q encounter, and probably the most I have ever laughed at the show!!!
Avenue Q has played 22 cities, but seems to of missed some places, I missed the tour in Bromley, does anyone think the promoters will announce further dates?
2-12 February Theatre Royal Sawclose BATH
14-19 February Churchill Theatre High Street BROMLEY
22-26 February Hall for Cornwall Back Quay TRURO
28 February-5 March Richmond Theatre The Green RICHMOND
8-12 March His Majesty's Theatre Rosemount Viaduct ABERDEEN
5-19 March Theatre Royal Theatre Street NORWICH
21-26 March New Victoria Theatre Peacocks Centre WOKING
28 March-2 April Lyceum Theatre Tudor Square SHEFFIELD
4-9 April Wycombe Swan St Mary Street HIGH WYCOMBE
12-16 April The Mayflower Commercial Road SOUTHAMPTON
18-23 April Milton Keynes Theatre Marlborough Gate MILTON KEYNES
26-30 April Theatre Royal Theatre Square NOTTINGHAM
2-7 May Theatre Royal New Road BRIGHTON
9-14 May Cambridge Arts Theatre 6 St Edwards Passage CAMBRIDGE
17-21 May Birmingham Hippodrome Hurst Street BIRMINGHAM
23-28 May Bristol Hippodrome St Augustine's Parade BRISTOL
31 May-4 June The Lowry Pier 8 Salford Quays SALFORD
6-11 June Alhambra Theatre Morley Street BRADFORD
14-18 June Wales Millennium Centre Bute Place CARDIFF
21-25 June Grand Opera House Great Victoria Street BELFAST
28 June-2 July King's Theatre 297 Bath Street GLASGOW
5-9 July Derngate Guildhall Road NORTHAMPTON Box Office 01604 624811
In Southampton we had top price tickets (I was about 8 rows back in stalls, AMAZING SEATS) for £12.50 each as Students!!! The best value for money show I have EVER seen!!!