TORONTO – One would think that the children’s television show Sesame Street, with its puppet characters such as Big Bird and Kermit, is a light year removed from a sophisticated Broadway musical.
Jeff Marx, who watched the children’s TV show while he was growing up, said it was his creative model for writing music and lyrics for the stage show Avenue Q.
Jeff Marx, who watched the children’s TV show while he was growing up, said it was his creative model for writing music and lyrics for the stage show Avenue Q.
Avenue Q, presented by Dancap Productions, plays at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre until Aug. 31.
“What I wanted to do was not have the traditional Broadway musical with actors breaking into song that has turned off so many people from my generation,” said Marx, 37, from his Los Angeles home. “I wanted to create a musical that young people can relate to, with unique issues from my generation.”
Avenue Q has attracted an audience in their 20s and 30s who see it as a musical that speaks to their generation in a way that contemporary musical theatre usually does not.
The show is a grown-up version of Sesame Street on stage, with live characters and puppets singing about the issues of life following college, such as career disappointment, as well as sexual identity and tolerance among ethnic minorities.
Avenue Q is a contemporary urban neighbourhood made up of young Asians, single
women, gay men, Jews, Hispanics, blacks and social outcasts – there’s also a character based on the former child star Gary Coleman – all struggling to find their own way. Most of the characters in the show are life-size puppets, operated by actors onstage.
Written by Marx and co-writer Robert Lopez, the show’s songs include Everyone’s a Bit Racist, Internet Is For Porn, If You Were Gay and It Sucks To
Be Me.
Avenue Q became such a hit that it won the 2003 Tony Award for best play as well as other Tony categories.
“I love the fame and security that Avenue Q gave me, but what I am most proud about is taking out the traditional linear story of one or two main characters and creating equal weight behind all the characters in the show,” Marx said.
“The scenes become realistic to those who just left college and are exploring who they are and could become.”
Marx said that Avenue Q is not an autobiography, but many of the characters in the play reflect conflicts he faced in his college years.
Growing up in Hollywood, Fla., Marx, as a teen, had a band that played mostly Barry Manilow music at bar mitzvahs and Jewish weddings. Bearing a striking resemblance to his idol, young Jeff thought of himself as a Barry Manilow wannabe.
“I played Manilow music at the shows and really wanted to have a career in show business and have success like Barry. I wrote to Barry for career advice and met him backstage after his Miami concert in 1987 and he told me, ‘Go follow your dreams, but get out of your town and go to New York,’” Marx said.
“So my plan was to have a career as a performer in musical theatre on Broadway, and I enrolled as an undergraduate in theatre at Michigan State University.” But along the way to a career as an actor, Marx became a lawyer instead, specializing in entertainment law.
“In retrospect, it was a good move. I learned all about the money and legal aspects of show
business, and how to parody without being sued – which led to Avenue Q,” he said. “Being a lawyer gave me knowledge, but my ambition was back on the stage, not as an actor anymore, but I had to be creative.”
Much of what happens in Avenue Q may not be autobiographical, but the struggles Marx faced are addressed in the play. For example, Princeton learns that he is gay after thinking he was in love with a woman. Marx, who is openly gay, also was unsure of his identity in his teens.
The play reflects Marx’s core values growing up Jewish. Act 2 talks of the value of being generous to others – by finding a school for Katie Monster, a kindergarten teacher – and also shows the live characters and puppets attending a Jewish wedding ceremony.
“The Jewish concept of tzedakah is there – and everyone relates to the climax in the play, Jewish or not. A man told me that he thought the act of being generous was a very Christian act in the play,” Marx said.
Avenue Q played in Las Vegas for nine months before going on a national tour this year. Marx is currently working on a movie version of Avenue Q and has also written a musical episode for the TV series Scrubs.
For tickets to Avenue Q, call 416-872-5555 or visit www.avenueq.com.
