They’ll deny it, but most college students who write plays harbor some secret fantastic hope that their new opus will be hailed as the arrival of a fresh new voice and open on Broadway to triumphant acclaim. It obviously never happens, except when it does: 28-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally from Washington Heights, conceived the musical In the Heights as a sophomore at Wesleyan. After graduating, the show, a hip hop and salsa-inflected homage to his......

THEATER: Katharsis Theater Company has been developing The Polish Play for the past two years; it’s a fusion of Macbeth and Ubu Roi, the play by Alfred Jarry that was partially inspired by Macbeth. This work of Grand Guignol fusion, which mixes puppetry with live acting, swerves between broad satire, tragedy and plenty of ultra-violence. (Although puppets are decapitated and disemboweled on-stage, rest assured that no puppets are permanently harmed for this production.) Jordan Gelber,......

Our 4th Birthday is coming up in February, and to help celebrate we'll be having a rock show (Movable Hype 11.0, to be exact). Details will filter in throughout the next month, but for now, we're pleased to announce that White Rabbits will be playing! Listen: The Plot.mp3 The cast of Avenue Q just reviewed one of the bands tracks, check it out: We hope they make a cool video flyer for the show. And......

- Streetblogs has Mayor's Bloomberg vision for the city in all its PDF glory - Three cops are accused of falsely claiming a massage parlor was part of a prostitution ring... - ...while authorities closed down some brothels using Korean sex slaves that were part of a national chain - The Avenue Q guys will be writing songs for a musical episode of the TV show, Scrubs: "The fourth one is a song about......

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. Over the past centuries, people have adapted Shakespeare’s plays in countless ways, often to put them in a contemporary setting. With Clean, by contrast, Bob Epstein has taken an already contemporary story and setting and written it in the manner of a good Shakespearean comedy mixed......

Marion's Continental, a longtime Bowery presence is revamping its annex -- where once shimmied the go-go boys (Avenue Q writer Jeff Whitty among them at one point) an old favorite bar and dining room is now reborn. When Michael Howett and Richard Bach first opened the place on Elizabeth Street, it was the first bar and dining room there and those who knew it remember the nude paintings, eccentricities, ancient wine bottles and tchotchkes well.......

Yes, the TKTS booth is moving from Duffy Square to the Marriott Marquis until December of this year while the new TKTS booth that looks like a huge red staircase (the ticket counters are under the stairs) is being constructed. But why did it take so long? Because the Times Square Alliance decided to spiff up Duffy Square, that sliver of land between Broadway and Seventh Avenues, between 47th and 46th Streets, in a......

CBS New York morning anchor Jim Ryan is doing the show from various locations for a Breakfast With Jim Ryan segment each day. Now, if you've been watching the local news for a while, you'll know Jim from hosting Good Day New York on Channel 5. We always thought that Jim was at his best when he was needling weather man Dave Price, who moved over to CBS a while ago, so we were thrilled......

The papers have been wondering about Fernando Ferrer's new tagline, "It's a great city. It could be greater." with the NY Times wonders if it'll even be remembered, the Observer's Politicker guesses its inspiration. It certainly smacks of the "duh" and "whatever" factor (our subways are great...but they could be greater), but Gothamist was actually reminded of city's (and Mayor Bloomberg's) desire to say we're "The World's Second Home." Because, stupid attracts stupid, Gothamist can......

Though there are festivals running and a few small ones still opening, after several weeks of festival posting Gothamist is taking a break and looking at what else is going on in theatre. First, we were glad to hear in the latest backstage news that Avenue Q is going to splash across the pond and premiere in London early next year. It would be better if it could go sooner, but in Gothamist’s mind......

Gothamist expected the premiere of The Muppets' Wizard of Oz at the Tribeca Film Festival to be star-sutdded, but who realized that it would also mean a huge blowup Kermit in the nabe? This reminded Gothamist of a memorable sighting of a blowup Kermit the night before a Thanksgiving Day Parade: He was caught in a compromising position. Anyone, we invite you to offer a caption in the comments. The Muppets' Wizard of Oz......

Jeff Marx & Robert Lopez, Creators Avenue Q...

The media is buzzing about NJ Governor McGreevey's apperance at the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner last night - his first appearance at a gay event as a gay American. That's great for the Governor that he's getting on with his life - but where was his wife? Anyway, Gothamist was amused by what the Daily News wrote about his visit backstage at Avenue Q, the puppet musical that includes the gay puppet, Rod:He posed......

The pundits are talking about how Senator Kerry seemed "presidential" and how President Bush only had thirty minutes of material, as the respective presidential aides are trying to spin that their candidate won the debate. Our thoughts: John Kerry was solid, strong and articulate, even if he's kind of a bore, while President Bush, though very approachable, unraveled towards the end - he was Pausey McPausepants. Not that everyone can be a smooth talker,......

If it weren't for our sub-blogs, Gothamist wouldn't know: - How to make 'cesca's meatballs in brodo - That this week is Toast to NY which... - ....could be related to knowing if it's legal to drink with beer funnels - Avenue Q puppets will be debating on Thursday in Times Square - We're not livin g in Seattle - The Giants look "pretty good" this season - You could get 212 points for one......

Oh, those wacky folks at Avenue Q have done it again. Those brilliant marketers are throwing their own debate Sept. 30 at 1 PM in Times Square's Duffy Square on 46th Street and Broadway, featuring singing candidates, free popcorn, cotton candy, balloons, and more. We love the warning being used: "Please Note - Any similarity between puppets and actual Presidential candidates is purely coincidental." Not-so-coincidentally, Bush and Kerry have their first debate later that evening.......

Tomorrow brings a few exciting but very different activities to partake in: First, there is Broadway on Broadway, a live free outdoor concert in Times Square, hosted by Wayne Brady (soon to be seen in Chicago) and Christy Carlson Romano (Beauty and the Beast), to celebrate the musicals and plays the Great White Way has to offer. Some of the participating shows: Avenue Q, Brooklyn, The Musical (who knew?), Chicago, Golda’s Balcony (which means the......

Are you tired out from the onslaught of summer theatre festivals? Still got enough to juice for a closing song and dance number? The New York Musical Theatre Festival throws open its doors on Monday, September 13th with an Opening Gala -- a dinner reception, performance and opening night party (at the China Club) apparently featuring their Honorary Gala Chair, Brian Stokes Mitchell of Ragtime and Kiss Me Kate fame. So what is it? According......

After brushing off the RNC dust and settling back into a week of normalcy Gothamist noticed this Crain's piece on the effect the invasion of the Republicans had on Broadway. Basically, they got creamed, with an 18% attendance drop compared to the same week last year and a whopping 20% drop in box office grosses. Variety via Yahoo gives the skinny on which shows suffered the most, reporting "significant five-figure slippage" at "Fiddler on the......

As we enjoy these last dog days of summer, savvy New Yorkers know that it's not too early to think about ordering tickets for some of the cool shows arriving on the fall theater scene, just around the corner. Playwrights Horizons, one of Gothamist’s favorite non-profit theater companies, has announced the opening production of their new season. People Be Heard, a new comedy with songs, will have its world premiere there, with previews starting Tuesday,......

There were gasps when Avenue Q, the underdog musical because that's what you call a musical that started off-Broadway and features puppets, won best musical last night at the Tony Awards, but considering that the show won best book and best score earlier on in the night, it seemed clear that it would be a night on Avenue Q, and Gothamist couldn't be happier. Avenue Q could be called a kinder, feltier variation on the......

With the Tony nominations announced yesterday, everyone is buzzing about Wicked (this year's uneven and "quirky" Tony story; will Kristen and Idina cancel each other out?), Bombay Dreams (a little Andrew Lloyd Webber Schadenfreude), how Puffy wasn't nominated but the three other actresses all were (when you get "meh" reviews, what does he expect - this isn't the MTV Video Music Awards) and how hunky Hugh Jackman is...and they talk about how the Times's public......

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Gothamist went to see Avenue Q - aka "the puppet musical" - this past weekend. While the performers and creative team have roots on Sesame Street and the material is upbeat, the story and songs are gleefully subversive and honest. Songs include, "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "The Internet is For Porn," and "Schadenfreude." The cast is a mix of puppets and humans, but you still see the humans behind the puppets, as Avenue......