Results tagged “avenueq”

Broadway is suffering, people! This summer attendance was down 9.3%, compared with the same period a year ago. Even with more expensive tickets, box office grosses were down 2.9%, to just under $290.9 million. So producer Ken Davenport isn't just being a drama queen when he tells Crain's, "We have far fewer butts in seats, and that concerns me. This summer wasn't good, and we're on target for a drop at the end of this season." Davenport produced four shows on Broadway last season but this fall he's only doing one—David Mamet's Oleanna, a two-hander starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Other producers are hoping celebs like Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and, ugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones can bring the butts back.

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 old ‘hood, caught the eye of the producers behind RENT and Avenue Q. It opened Off Broadway last year to rave reviews, packed houses and far too many awards to schlep home on the A train. Now the Broadway incarnation is bounding through previews, having kept most of the original Off Broadway cast, which includes Miranda himself in one of the starring roles. The official opening night is March 9th; ticket prices vary.

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, who some may recall from Avenue Q, plays Pere Ubu. Read about the rehearsal process on the company’s weblog to learn more about director Henry Wishcamper's search for shit squibs. - John Del Signore

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!

- And is George Steinbrenner dying, totally out of it, growing senile, or all of the above?

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.

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. So well that customers asked after them for years -- til now, when all the nude paintings you could be missing are rightfully rehung, this time in the basement. The dining angle is mostly tapas and some main courses, from all over, well complimented by wine and a bar that focuses heavily on the whiskey. As much as thouse nudes may remind you of figure study classes, the whiskey will bring you back even quicker. For those missing The Slide, the gay, gay, gay space M & R took over, we'd recommend the awesome Mr. Black's, just a few blocks away (Tricia Romano looks at the bar's main attraction to NSFW results).

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 $12.5 million project the meantime. The Times Square Alliance's Tim Tompkins says the TKTS steps will be "the Spanish Steps on steroids (it's okay to say "steroids" in development), and remaking Duffy Square is part of the bigger plan to make Times Square more pedestrian friendly. We can't wait!

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 that they could be reunited. Today he was at Mike's Deli (you can see the segment here) on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and tomorrow he'll be at Natives in Queens. CBS 2 is taking suggestions on fun places for him to hang out (email CBS2Crew@cbs.com), and ours would be the Fairway Cafe (interaction with insane Upper West Side shoppers) or a Chinatown dim sum emporium like Triple 8 Palace (eat pigs knuckles at 5:30AM!). Do you have picks for breakfast fun?

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 only assume that the Bad Idea Bears from Avenue Q have been loitering around the slogan-making rooms of Bloomberg and Ferrer. We hope that in 2009 there will be slogans like "Vote or You Will Die In NYC" or "NYC - More Rats, More Cowbell" because we'd understand that, at least.

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 this is sort of New York theatre’s way of showing solidarity with recently terrorized Londoners. What better rejoinder could we have than these songs sung by a cast of multicultural, goofy, slightly naughty but utterly lovable puppets?

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.

Jeff Marx & Robert Lopez, Creators Avenue Q

The NY Post on McGreevey's "big night 'out'". Gothamist on McGreevey's resignation and Avenue Q.

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, but it'd be nice to have confidence in the person speaking. President Bush will need to find at least his B-game if he wants to be competitive in the debates. Newscoverage from the NY Times and Washington Post (WP TV critic Tom Shales quotes a politico saying "It was Andy Griffith meets Barney Fife.") ; the NY Post headline is "Toe to Toe," though in the article, they do note Kerry was more prepared and the President was repetitive and seemed unsure. And check this out: The NY Times' Katherine Seelye basically blogs the debate; no mention of any drinking games played. [Per a reader's comment yesterday, we'll work on a drinking game for the next debate, but some early thoughts: 1 drink if Bush smirks; 1 drink if they mention Osama; 1 drink if Kerry's face looks more melty than usual; 1 drink if Bush breaks a rule; 1 drink if Kerry can't really smile because he's using some of Theresa's Botox; 2 drinks if the candidate compliments the opponent; 2 drinks if they invoke September 11; chug if there's substantial domestic policy debate; chug if Bush has a coherent response...and if Bush starts speaking in Spanish, go to your local bar and drink and drink and drink...yeah, you might not chug, but you'll still get ass-drink.]

- You could get 212 points for one word in a game of Scrabble (okay, it'd help if you were a pro...)

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.

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 awesome Tovah Feldshuh, aka attorney Danielle Melnick from Law & Order, will be there), Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, Little Women, Mamma Mia!, The Producers, Rent, Wicked and Wonderful Town.

Are you tired out from the onslaught of summer theatre festivals? Still got enough to juice for a closing song and dance number?

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. via Yahoo gives the skinny on which shows suffered the most, reporting "significant five-figure slippage" at "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Frogs," "Wonderful Town" and "Golda's Balcony", and even successful shows like "Avenue Q" and "Movin' Out" getting hit hard, too, down $70,134 and $85,094 respectively.

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.

And as reader Brian Van points out, since favored musical Wicked did not win, we'd like Times public editor Daniel Okrent to make good on his claim that "if [Wicked] loses the Tony I'll eat my black satin jacket from the road company of Jekyll and Hyde." You name the venue, Daniel!