Ave. Q drinking at New World

I found it curious to see an Ad for Avenue Q right above this message board not advertising the show but advertising the ability to have "More drinks" and "Bring them to your seat." I know ROA has taken a lot of shots for promoting drinking in the theater... the fans called "trashy" and "the dregs"... Does this glorious distinction now pertain to Avenue Q? I hope so! I know ROA has never put the fact that you can drink in it's advertising... much less made it the ONLY thing advertised about the show.

There's a difference between the New World Stage shows and RoA, though. NWS does not have waiter service. You can bring a drink or 2 to your seat, but that's it. No one walks up and down the aisles giving you more. I think I've seen almost every show (and others) at the NWS and I have never seen what I have seen at RoA.

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I also don't think the drinking in and of itself caused the bad feelings about the ROA audiences (personally, I have no opinion. Haven't seent he show, haven't run across the audiences...) It is more the inappropriate behavior of some audience members, which may have been fueled by the alcohol. ROA has taken shots for promoting drinking, because it is felt that the bad behavior could be curtailed by not encouraging the drinking. Should similiar issues happen at Q, I'm sure they will take some shots as well.

(Of course, I think the idea of advertising the drinking using the Bad Idea Bears is a stroke of brilliance. If someone has an issue with it, they can always say, "Well, you should know better than to listen to the Bad Idea Bears.") LOL!

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Certainly now, anyone who sees Avenue Q at NWS will be dregs.

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Actually, now that you mention it, I seem to remember guys coming around hawking beers (not exactly waiter service, more like beer guys at baseball games) at Toxic Avenger at NWS. So, yeah, they do have at-seat sales.

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When EVIL DEAD was playing at NWS, they had waiter service. I don't think it was during the show, but they definitely walked up and down the aisles before and during intermission selling drinks.

It's not a new thing that ROA invented. Their audiences have just taken in to obnoxious, inappropriate levels.

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I haven't seen TOXIC AVENGER yet, but I know they sold alcoholic drinks in the aisles at EVIL DEAD.

I repeat, ROCK OF AGES did not invent this concept. Ever since it opened off-Broadway, people have acted like this is a revelation. It's a New World Stages thing that they took with them when they moved to Broadway. Now they're finally realizing why it might have been a bad idea.

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The thread about the drunk women being kicked out, and obnoxious drunk behavior in the audience in general. I meant that the fans are now realizing it was a bad idea, not the producers (although they might be, too). I should have worded that more clearly.

I don't have a specific thread or post in mind, but I just remember everyone talking about the drink service at ROA while it was off-Broadway and how it was so cool how they came up with the idea to do that, and then how they were going to keep that going when they moved to Broadway. No one specifically said that ROA invented the concept, but a lot of the comments felt, to me, as if that was the idea behind it. I was not responding to this thread, least of all you in particular, just to the sentiment in general that I've been hearing for months.

It's possible I'm projecting because I just don't like the show, but even before I saw it, that's how I interpreted those posts, and it bothered me then.

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Updated On: 10/6/09 at 01:06 PM