Finally, "Avenue Q" came to Manila!! By some miracle yesterday, my husband & I got to see it (in seats just meters away from the stage even!) with a couple of friends who were also fans of this Tony Award-winning musical that's bound to kill all your notions about puppets and children's shows ;-P
It's pure genius, I tell you, using puppets to talk about porn ("the internet is for porn!"), one-night stands, homosexuality, racism. And if, like so many others during the "Bert is Evil" scandal (which you'll recall if you were already a netizen back in the late 90s hehehe), you were convinced that Bert is gay (hence the episode on homosexuality on Sesame Street), this shows what could have been if Bert were gay ;-)
Some time after the 15-minute intermission and unabashed guffaws, you'd probably get to thinking, "There is bound to be a 'moral lesson' of sorts here somewhere...", especially because the Bad Idea Bears ("she's wasted, take her home!") kept distracting Princeton from finding his purpose. And then it suddenly hits you towards the musical's lovely end, when they sing that the hardest things about life are "only for now". It made me teary-eyed in the same way that I did when the "Rent" cast sang "Seasons of Love". I am suddenly urged to love every stranger around the corner.
Confession: I am now a fan of Rachel Alejandro (Kate Monster/Lucy T. Slut). Grah-beh. Actually, fan na ako of all the actors who voiced and held 2 or more puppets. Such windang ha; how long did they practice, I wonder?
We were actually surprised that, even on such a short run, the show was sold out. Is it a sign of Philippine Theater's revival? And, oh joy! They're doing another run (albeit short again) of "Avenue Q" from December 14-23, again in the cozy CPR Auditorium of the RCBC Plaza in Makati. Book your tickets na! Let's go sago! And let's altogether sing, "We live on Avenue Quuuuuu... your friends do too!"
