We saw Avenue Q the first night, Friday. It was one of the choices for the football tournament. The other might have been Hairspray, can’t remember. Aside from being underwhelmed at the rest of the teams’ turn-out for Broadway (I remember saying to one of the hosting committee, “But we’re in New York for God’s sake! What wouldn’t be more gay than to see a Broadway musical while playing in a flag football tournament?”), I was completely enthralled seeing Broadway theatre on Broadway on a Friday night. I don’t know why I was so much more stoked seeing this musical than seeing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee a couple years ago in its first, early run. Perhaps it’s because a good friend had played Avenue Q’s soundtrack for me about ten years ago and “The Internet Is For Porn” stuck with me all that time.

So, there I was, enthralled with the mock-Sesame Street staging and out comes Princeton. And his puppeteer was completely hot. Distractingly so. To the point that I started crafting methods to dump BF for a few and meet Howie for some reenactment of the sex scene in the show. I’ve always had a thing for shorter guys (5’7″-5’9″) and I’ve always had a thing for musical theatre, so Howie was definitely hitting my buttons. Plus, his performance was tremendous. Shit, what Avenue Q (and the rest of the shows that weekend) made clear is that Broadway really IS the place to hear a performance. The talent level is first rate, bar none. I’ve seen various national tours in Detroit (naturally), stagings in Toronto, Chicago, and San Diego and they do not compare. Perhaps it is the supersaturation of theatre people, but I thought the ticket price ($100 per) was worth it.

I also didn’t realize how deeply ingrained my affection and memories for Sesame Street and The Muppets are. I giggled like a four-year-old at nearly every little thing that was being said/done, gibbering/whispering, “Oh, that’s just like when on Sesame Street they did…” (Aside: ITunes allows me to reminisce by downloading the musical in five minutes and to listen now. Isn’t our modern world just wonderful? ) The has-been actor cameos, the mix of muppet and adult human interaction, bubble-gum tunes, the interjected educational commercials “com-mit-ment”, the vocabulary lesson, “Schadenfreude” (for which I chortled as soon as it started having a certain affection for German sensibilities), the complete reversal of morals through the Bad Idea Bears “You should kill yourself!” LOL, just a perfect pastiche!

My Israeli BF needed a little debriefing after the show to explain my nearly psychotic, good humor. I had to explain how sharply transgressive it was to have a muppet with chest hair, why singing boxes were brilliant, and why I wanted to purchase something with Bad Idea Bears plastered on it. It’s a little embarrassing when you’re having a transcendent, religious experience by yourself.