Avenue Q London

[Punch'n'Judy]

We now know that Avenue Q is to come over to England, thanks to Cameron Macintosh Ltd, and probably will start off at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Just wondering if anyone has heard what will happen in terms of casting. I do hopw that the roles go to puppeteers, rather than singers. Possibly (and indeed hopefully) Louise Gold will be involved bridging the puppeteer/singer gap beautifully, but what about the rest of the cast, and indeed crew? Presumably the Lyon Co, will be making the puppets again rather than an English builder, but they will need caring for during the run...possibly an ASM job for a puppeteer/rigger/maker.

Anyone heard anything?

James

 

[robinthecrow]

English builder? I'll build them! If not, I'll audition for it! I'd love to be all Rick's characters in Q!

 

[HeartlessGiant]

It would be kind of cool if they went with a new design though. I mean, it would kind of insure that "yes, Avenue Q will live on forever, just like all the other musicals".

I know no one wants to think about it, but sooner or later, it will close. It'd just be nice to know that when it does, it can still be revived and re imagined, as any good show can.

 

[BEAR]

Avenue Q will be having their home in Las Vegas. As of now they do not plan to tour the Broadway show nationally as they do with every other production. Also, regional theaters will probably not be able to put on their own productions of Q.

 

[Was Once Ernie]

I heard a rumor that John Tartaglia and Rick Lyon might do the Vegas production for a while in the beginning, but neither of them will confirm or deny it.

 

[Punch'n'Judy]

English builder? I'll build them!

I imagine if they do go for a British company it would be Darryl Worbey Studios http://www.darrylworbeystudios.com/ Will be interesting to see how much of the book has to be re-written to suite the British public, e.g. very few people here know who Gary Coleman is!

If I see anything in The Stage etc, I'll post details here, and would appreciate it if others did also.

TTFN

James

 

[Jinx]

Rick and John have been signed to open the Las Vegas production. You can read the story at http://www.playbill.com/news/article/94267.html

Sadly they seem to have steered away from puppeteers as first choice performers. The first replacement casting call for broadway was to puppeteers, but subsequent ones have not tageted puppeteers, as they feel that any competent actor can be trained to be a puppeteer. This is of course true, but it really takes years to master the skills, (in my humble but accurate opinion).

On the one hand it makes sense, because many puppeteers do not sing (or at least have trained voices that can sustain 8 performaces a week, or 10 in the case of Vegas!) and are in fact uncomfortable performing in view of the audience. But on the other hand, it does kind of give short shrift to those of us who have extensive experience with and without puppets...

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

This sounds great! What I'd love to see is Avenue Q in Australia or maybe even an Australian version of it. We can wish but I wont hold my breath about it coming here.

 

[Skekayuk]

Rick and John have been signed to open the Las Vegas production. You can read the story at http://www.playbill.com/news/article/94267.html
Sadly they seem to have steered away from puppeteers as first choice performers. <snip>, as they feel that any competent actor can be trained to be a puppeteer. This is of course true, but it really takes years to master the skills, <snip> On the one hand it makes sense, because many puppeteers do not sing (or at least have trained voices that can sustain 8 performaces a week, or 10 in the case of Vegas!) and are in fact uncomfortable performing in view of the audience. s...

Which is of course why Ms Gold would be such a wonderful choice (let's hope they at least consider her), she is a bit unusal (at least in Britain) for fitting so wonderfully into both realms. And already a notable West End performer (in recent years her West End credits have included stints in Mamma Mia and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang after all). Gosh I hope they at least consider her.

 

[AfricanJenny]

Casting for Avenue Q at Theatre Royal Stratford,UK

Hi there

This is a link to an advertisement in The Stage of last week, calling for puppeteers/singers for Avenue Q at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/recruitment/detail.php?insertNumber=09531636

Would love to here from any other UK puppeteers/performers who will be applying as I did!


Regards

Jenny