Producers Shorten Vegas Version of Avenue Q to 90 Minutes

The Vegas version of Avenue Q has been cut down from its original form. The shortened version of the tuner premiered at Wynn Las Vegas on January 19, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Las Vegas is known for hosting abbreviated tuners often referred to as "tab versions". While Mamma Mia! can be seen there in its entirety, upcoming mountings of Hairspray and The Phantom of the Opera will both run at 90 minutes, the typical running length of shows in the casino capital. When the Vegas run of Avenue Q was announced in 2004, producers promised the show would be seen there in its normal form. "We wouldn't do it another way--It's not going to be the Evelyn Wood version of the show," producer Robyn Goodman joked, referring to the famous speed-reading course.

The show has been playing in its Broadway form in Vegas since August 2005, but the decision was recently made to make a change. "People don't want to sit for an hour and 45 minutes," another Q producer, Kevin McCollum, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Given there is so much to do in Vegas with the casino, restaurants and nightclubs, it just seemed, why are we not putting up show times that better fit the rhythm of our customer?"

The Vegas mounting of Avenue Q will now be intermission-less, feature a slightly revised book and peformed without the songs "There is Life Outside Your Apartment" and "I Wish I Could Go Back to College."