,
puppet musical "Avenue Q" kicks off what is shaping up
to be a busy spring for Atlanta theatergoers. Next week,
Broadway in Atlanta premieres the 2004 Tony Award-winner
for Best Musical.
It's much like an adult take on “Sesame Street,” featuring
puppets operated by onstage actors. The main character
is a recent college grad who can only afford to live in
the titular Avenue Q area of New York, where he finds an
assortment of neighbors, including Rod, a closeted
Republican investment banker.
The creative team of “Avenue Q” is largely gay, including
director Jason Moore and writer Jeff Whitty.
“The idea of being adrift — in your mid ‘20s, not sure
what to do with your life — is what inspired us," Whitty
says. "There is very little else out there that covers that
same material.”
Whitty admits audiences are often surprised at
“Avenue Q’s” warmth and sly humor.
“They think they know what the show is going to be
about, and they don’t," he says. " My favorite is when people
say they were really moved, that they were feeling bad
for a puppet.”
Moore, who confesses that the Tony win was a surprise
to almost everyone involved with the show, says
audiences really love the character of Rod, whose sexual
orientation is not really a secret to others. He laughs,
though, that “Avenue Q” is not for the younger set, with
full-puppet nudity, a character called Lucy the Slut, and
the now famous song “The Internet is for Porn.”
as a big draw at the beginning of Atlanta's stage season.
Much has changed in the more than 25 years since
Poundstone began tickling audiences with tales from her
life as a stand-up comic.
“When I was young and bussing tables, I talked about
that, and now I talk a
lot about public school,”
Poundstone says of her current act, which comes to Ferst
Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech on March 28.
Schooling is an appropriate topic for the mother of
three, especially since Poundstone’s comedic career
began in earnest when her kindergarten teacher wrote a
note on Poundstone’s report card.
“I have enjoyed many of Paula’s humorous comments
about our activities,” Poundstone remembers the note
saying. “I think I really liked the response of laughter
from the get-go.”
During her two-decade reign as one of America’s most
enduring stand-up comedians, Poundstone branched out
to co-write an educational text book called “Math with
Laughs,” and is a regular contributor to the NPR quiz
show, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” But the master of deadpan
and self-deprecation describes the thrill of stand-up as if it were addicting.
“I would be so lonely without the audience
— it would be an enormous loss to me
to not be able to be in front of the crowd,”
she says. “There’s a real magic to talking to a
group of people who’ve come out to laugh for
the evening, particularly now, when there’s
so many other forms of entertainment that
are largely house-bound. It’s particularly
flattering and exciting.”
One thing that hasn’t changed with time
and Poundstone’s success is the comedian’s
coyness about her sexual orientation.
“You know, I have no idea what I am — I
just don’t have sex,” Poundstone says. “I
have a great gay following, but I don’t
ascribe to anything personally. I don’t want
to muck up my life with partnering.”
“Indulgences,” directed by out Kate Warner,
is an absurdist farce that ends up making
quite a statement on God and gay marriage,
among other issues. Later in spring comes a
bevy of other plays, musicals and performances
sure to pique gay interests.
After "Avenue Q," "The Lion King"
returns featuring the music of Elton John.
After that, the stage version of Stephen
Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” arrives on the
heels of the Oscar nominated film version.
Speaking of Tony winners, Theatre in
the Square is about to open Douglas Carter
Beane’s “The Little Dog Laughed,” a wicked
satire about an up-and-coming actor who
turns out to be gay. It's directed by out Alan
Kilpatrick, who also helmed “Take Me Out”
for the company. The comedy is notorious for
its witty dialogue and a hot and heavy scene
between two of the men.
“I think it’s truly a funny script about
what gay actors have to deal with in
Hollywood,” Kilpatrick says.
One of the most famous productions in
the history of gay-friendly Actor’s Express is
Terrence McNally’s “Love! Valour!
Compassion!” In May, the company tackles
McNally again with “Some Men,” described
as a sprawling story of the gay experience.
“‘Some Men’ is, in my opinion, a landmark
of gay drama,” says Freddie Ashley,
the artistic director of Actor’s Express. “It
offers a sweeping view of the changes gay
life has gone through in the last century and
how those cumulative experiences have led
to the gay American experience today.”
regularity these days. This spring, they offer
up a triumvirate of work by gay playwright
Topher Payne. In “The Perfect
Arrangement,” government workers look
around for “moral corruption” — i.e. homosexuality.
Trouble is, two of them are closeted
themselves, married to cover their
“secret.” The show runs in rep with two
more shows by the playwright.
Over in Stone Mountain, Art Station
plans "Five Course Love" for April and May.
Three actors play 15 characters set in five
restaurants to tell the story of five couples,
including a gay one.
Occasionally, the Center for Puppetry
Arts moves away from children’s fare for its
Adult Series. Next month, the Center hosts
openly gay political satirist Paul Zaloom and
his “The Mother of All Enemies.” In the
vein of a Middle Eastern shadow play, it
focuses on a “queer-secular humanist-
Quaker-Buddhist-agnostic Arab immigrant
artist” who finds himself hunted by Al
Qaeda and the Christian Gay Movement.
Rounding out stage performances this
season is comedian Margaret Cho, who
appears with Liam Sullivan and musical
guest Kelly at The Tabernacle in June.
