Schdenfreude

Last night we went to see Avenue Q, with a bunch of swimmers and assorted people, and it was so much better than I expected it to be. It was one of those musicals where the every song is terrific, every character is likeable and every situation is somewhat real. I am sitting here in my desk on Monday morning and I am still some what amazed at the creativity of the people who wrote the book, the music and who came up with the concept.

The show is both a parody of Sesame Street and real life, and what real life is supposed to mean. It starts with a young freshly minted college graduate moving to Avenue Q, and what happens in his first year out there. The show is always ironic and raunchy, but it might be because of the use of puppets that you can just take it all in and enjoy the ride. I had listened to the entire sound track 3 years ago, when the show opened and everyone I knew had either seen it in NY or had heard about it, I remembering listening to it at the Architect’s house and going to next day to purchase it. As I played the entire cd, I fell in love with most of the songs, I specially enjoyed the “Internet is for Porn”, “What do you with a BA in English” and “Everyone is a little bit racist”. They were so different from any other songs I had heard in musicals before, and the seemed so fresh, and witty. When I went and saw it staged, the musical was even better because you get to see what happens in between the songs, and you understand the situations a little bit better and you get to meet The Bad Idea Bears, which are two adorable characters.

I loved the show, and yes I do recommend it completely. A big part of the experience was seeing the Argentine laugh uncontrollably at times, and few things make me smile more.

I do have to say that the show stands well against the test of time, in the early 00’s it was extremely relevant, with all the references to lay offs and young struggling college grads, I am by no means a young struggling college grad and half the show applies directly to my life. Of course the one line that will need to be changed next year is the one about how George Bush is only for now, which almost brought the audience to its feet. It was after all a Washington crowd. But I am sure they can find some other name to use when the times come to show how things are truly mostly for now.