More Q: Tony Winner Avenue Q Is Moving Off-Broadway

After six years on Broadway, Avenue Q is getting a new address. At the conclusion of the Tony-winning musical’s final performance on Broadway on September 13, producers announced that they will move the show off-Broadway rather than close it entirely. It will reopen at New World Stages on October 9.

At New World Stages, Avenue Q will play in Stage 3, with a seating capacity of 499. The Golden Theatre, where the show opened on July 31, 2003, has slightly more than 800 seats. No casting has been confirmed for the off-Broadway run of the show.

The producers' announcement asserted that Avenue Q would be the first show to transfer from Broadway to off-Broadway. although a spokesperson for the Off-Broadway League later cited a couple of other examples ('Night Mother and Billy Bishop Goes to War).

A musical about a group of 20-something people and puppets who live as neighbors in a gentrifying street in NYC, Avenue Q interestingly got its start off-Broadway, at the Vineyard Theatre in March 2003. It moved to the Golden Theatre four months later, becoming an audience and critical favorite, and won three 2004 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Avenue Q ran for 2,534 performances at the Golden Theatre, becoming the 20th longest-running show in Broadway history. The off-Broadway mounting will be produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, Jeffrey Seller, the Vineyard Theatre and the New Group.