Little Known Q Facts
Avenue Q's Ann Harada is famous for her current role as Christmas Eve, but it took her many unseen revisions to perfect her performance as an irreverent caricature of an Asian stereotype. Her previous Broadway performances include Seussical and M. Butterfly, and her New York City and regional stage credits include Falsettoland, The Moment When, 1,2,3,4,5, Working and Golden Child. Having been with Avenue Q since its first reading, Harada has a lot of history with the show. Here, she offers a glimpse of all the characters that secretly passed through Avenue Q on its journey to the Great White Way, not to mention the characters in the first row of the audience.
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People always greet me at the Avenue Q stage door with "you look like you're having so much fun up there!" Which is the absolute truth. But sometimes the fun has nothing to do with us. Sometimes the audience gets into the act, especially the lottery winners in the first row. Who could forget a young man dressed in a red and white striped sweater, matching hat and black horned rim glasses? "Where's Waldo?" we whispered. Recently a girl showed up in a veil and tiara worn with jeans and a t-shirt. But our absolute favorite was the woman who ate her lunch during "Purpose" it was some kind of white cheese on wheat bread...Swiss? Provolone? Stephanie D'Abruzzo couldn't tell. It really tests our concentration. For heaven's sake, Q fans, don't come to the show dressed like Let's Make a Deal contestants or bring in KFC so we'll notice you--trust me, if you laugh really loudly or clap a lot, we'll like you just as much if not more.
Other than this advice, I have nothing new to say about Avenue Q.
There have already been reams of words--thousands of trees--devoted to this subject. Not to mention the number one stage door FAQ, to which the answer is: I love working with the puppets! And we all hang out together on our day off!
"The heck you say! You have been involved since the early days! Is there nothing you can share?" I will confess that I kind of miss some of the old characters that used to inhabit our world. Part of the joy of working on this show for so long is that with every version, some new nugget of information would add to the characters that we now know and love. But think of how many drafts it took to get our heroes to where they are today. For example, the actress who played Christmas Eve me also had to play, at various times, the UPS guy who delivers Princeton's moving boxes, an Irish cop, a street percussionist and Ed, Kate Monster's loser boyfriend. I was terrible as the percussionist but extremely convincing as the cop--nevertheless all these characters bit the dust. Amanda Green, who played Gary Coleman through most of the development process, also played Princeton's boss and Nicky's girlfriend Samantha. Samantha was sort of like Mr. Snuffleupagus--no one ever saw her except Nicky so we thought he was making her up--thus fueling the conviction that roommates Nicky and Rod were both gay and inspiring my favorite Christmas Eve lost line: "Rod your butt-boy! beat I only kidding. He your wife."
Jeff Whitty compiled an opening night gift of these lost scenes and called it "I Have Never Lain With a Man" which used to be our favorite Mrs. Thistletwat quote thus begging the question: how did Mr. Thistletwat feel about that?. While "Tear it Up and Throw it Away the Jury Duty Song" still lives as a bonus CD in our souvenir program, there are several lost ditties that might turn up in Avenue 2: Electric Boogaloo.
People marvel that Avenue Q seemed to come out of nowhere--and so few realize how hard the creative team sweated to make every little moment seem organic. And I mean literally sweated - we spent two weeks at the O'Neill Theatre Center in August 2002, when every day was a balmy 95 degrees. Stephanie and I are still convinced our beds were outfitted with plastic sheets. But that time was so precious, because we came to totally trust the integrity of our various characters. And the characters' complexity is what makes the show so endearing and moving.
That said, I was very fond of the version where Brian made every entrance dressed as a different service worker--Starbucks barista, Flash Dancers billboard guy, Kenny Rogers Roasters giant chicken mascot--but you can't have everything.