My Las Vegas experience (Avenue Q)

During this week, we visited Las Vegas and were lucky to be able to see Avenue Q. When we arrived there, we noticed something very different immediately. When we passed through Luxor (the pyramid-shaped hotel that currently plays Hairspray), we saw this HUGE HUGE advertisement which showed Tracy's head and big letters H-A-I-R-S-P-R-A-Y that covered the whole side of the pyramid! It's hard not to nice it... Then we saw a bus with one whole side advertising the show. Then of course, lots and lots of ads on Taxi. When we arrived in our hotel, we turned the TV on and saw Hairspray commercial featuring Harvey Fierstein saying "here's what the audiences thought about the show" and showed couple of people telling how great the show was with Fierstein's voice dubbed over it. (I thought it was very clever since his voice is so... well... different.) BTW, according to the TV ad, Harvey's playing through April 30th or something like that...
For Avenue Q publicity, we saw nothing except some Taxis with that "See what the fuzz is about" ads. When we saw the Wynn sign, they had a little square that showed Avenue Q logo, but nothing more.

Anyways, Avenue Q was fantastic. Even if it was shortened to 90 minutes, everything still made sense. The biggest changes were the cut of "There's a Life Outside Your Apartment" and "I Wish I Could Go Back to College". Few lines were deleted from some songs, but they didn't ruin the fun. Also, "There's a Fine Fine Line" is now after Kate visits Lucy T. Slut in the hospital.

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The biggest laughs were when:
1. After Lucy tells everyone that she's "normal" after the surgery, the Bad Idea Bears come and say that they've also changed in a good way and they reformed scientology or at least that's what I heard.
2. When Kate and Princeton does the 69 position during "You Can be as loud..."
3. When Trekkie says "Grab your dick and double-click for porn"
4. When that new kid says "I'm not some random kid who doesn't know anything about life. F**k you!"
and of course, the George Bush joke.

The theatre was about 75-80% full, which was surprising for me. No one walked out during the show, and it seemed like everyone (including myself) enjoyed it. I really really really wanted to see Hairspray, but my sucky parents didn't allow me... If any of you guys are planning to see Ave Q, go buy tickets for the mezzanine for about $50 through Wynn Las Vegas's official website. The stage was a *little* bit faraway (maybe not so much) but it was great view!

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Updated On: 4/22/06 at 02:06 AM

I'm glad you enjoyed the show! I love Avenue Q. =)

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Hehe...that logo is right where it belongs.

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I was in Vegas the weekend of April 8 and saw Hairspray and Avenue Q. Firestein was terriffic, but the Tracey wasn't too good. Avenue Q was great as always, but I definitely did miss "I wish I could go back to college". I think Brooklyn's Haneefah Wood was the best as Gary. Better than Natalie V. B. Also the cast alternates nightly, since the show performs so often. Only original member in it still is Rick Lyon. Great show though on and off broadway!

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I think they're cutting back on Ave Q advertisements since it was all over when I went in December (barely any Hairspray), they had a cool taxi that was covered in fuzz.

I wish I could see it before it leaves, I saw Mamma Mia and even though I enjoyed it according to everyone else Ave Q is much better...

Updated On: 4/22/06 at 06:42 PM

Yeah when we went no one in my family knew that it had puppets in it (or even that it was a musical), of course after my dad's friend told them it involved puppets and you had to be over 18 (which I later found out was not true) they automatically put it off as stupid. The closest thing they came to telling anything about the musical is a video in which people said thing like "it was great!" and that really showed nothing.

Updated On: 4/22/06 at 06:57 PM