avenue
Q
How did you get involved with AVENUE Q?
I first heard about AVENUE Q from my husband, who had met Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez while he was working at the Jim Henson Company. They were trying to get their first musical (KERMIT, PRINCE OF DENMARK) produced by the Muppets. They started talking about their newest project, a show called AVENUE Q. They were trying to put together a reading and mentioned that they were looking for a female puppeteer...and my hubby mentioned me. Incidentally, I had also been recommended by Rick Lyon, but he thought I would be too busy. Lesson to us all: most people aren’t as busy as you think they are...and even if they are, they’ll tell you that they at least liked being asked!
AVENUE Q was originally supposed to be a television series, a la “South Park,” so we all went into our first reading (held May 8, 2000) with absolutely no idea what events would transpire. Reading after reading followed in the next several years (the TV idea went away quickly) but I swear to you, I never for a second believed that I would actually get to be on Broadway until the ink was dry on that contract. Sometimes it still feels like it never happened.
Why did you leave AVENUE Q?
I had the opportunity to play Diana in I LOVE YOU BECAUSE Off-Broadway, and the time felt right to move on. My primary goal as an actor is to grow and improve, and there is only so much growth and improvement that can happen when you’re maintaining the same performance night after night for 2 ½ years. Basically, I wanted to flex new muscles, and even though I LOVE YOU BECAUSE closed after a few months, it was worth it to play a character that was totally different from Kate Monster or Lucy the Slut.
When was your final performance of AVENUE Q?
My final performance was the 2 PM matinee on December 24, 2005.
How many performances of AVENUE Q did you do?
Out of the 1003 Broadway performances we had done by December 24, 2005, I officially was in 960 performances. However, there were two instances where I lost my voice onstage and only completed Act I. Similar to baseball, where a game is official after 7 innings, apparently it is this way on Broadway, as one is not docked pay if one completes Act I, and it’s considered a full performance. But, if you want to be very, very precise, I was in 958 full performances and two Act Is.
Of course, this is all in addition to the 23 Broadway previews, as well as the Vineyard Theatre Off-Broadway run of 23 previews and 49 performances. I didn’t miss any of the Off-Broadway previews or performances. No one did. We didn’t have understudies. (We did, however, have to cancel a few performances.)
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m fascinated by statistics.
Do you think you’ll ever go back to the show or play the roles again elsewhere (London, touring)?
After so many years of being involved with the development of the show and the creation of the characters, and then so many months and years of actually doing the show 8 times a week, I don’t know what else I could possibly bring to the show or to the characters. I am certain that I will continue to perform the songs in some form or another, like at benefits or in cabaret. Actually, I find singing “There’s A Fine, Fine Line” out of character to be incredibly special, liberating, and somewhat different from my performance in the show or on the cast album.
I will admit that it would have been tempting to do the role in London if I had been invited to do so. I did turn down doing the 2005 Las Vegas run, mostly because if given the choice between doing the same show at home in NYC or away from home... well... I like my husband. Plus, there were two rotating casts in Vegas. To me, that was a recipe for potential disharmony. There’s enough drama in theatre already.
It also would have been nice to have closed the Broadway run in September 2009, but the opportunity did not present itself.
The roles were never mine to own. Even having originated them, I was only renting them.
Who did you like playing better, Kate Monster or Lucy the Slut?
It was great to play both of them because they balanced each other out. Kate is such a deeply emotional character, and she was so easy to improvise with. Lucy is more one-dimensional and less complex, and therefore just plain mindless fun. But in interview situations, Kate was always much better than Lucy. She had more to her, therefore she had more to say.
Who are you more like, Kate or Lucy?
I officially hate this question, but it gets asked more than any other. Every actor brings elements of themselves to the characters they play, and yet there are also elements in characters that are totally independent of the actor who plays them. That said, I brought more of myself into Kate than I brought of myself into Lucy. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Kate is me from head to toe…mostly because Kate doesn’t have any toes.
What do you miss most about doing AVENUE Q?
I miss saying hi to the band at 5 minutes to curtain. Sometimes it was a nice hello with kisses and conversation, and sometimes, if I was running late, it was just poking my head in and saying “Best show ever!” I got into the habit when the 4-piece band was backstage with us at the Vineyard, and it continued when the show moved to Broadway and the upgraded 6-piece band moved to a room beneath the stage. I loved our band…the regulars, the subs...all great musicians and great people. I still think of them as “my” band.
What is your dream role?
I always like to say that perhaps my dream role hasn’t been written yet. That said, there are plenty of existing roles I’d love to play, but I think that listing them is the surest way to never get to play them because it just gives people a chance to say “...really? Her?”
Would you prefer to do straight plays or musicals?
I love them both. There are wonderful and challenging things about each of them. I just want to be prolific. I truly hope to do one of the plays my husband Craig Shemin has written; that is, if they can find a home someday.
So, what have we learned, kids?
That not all collector’s plates go up in value. Some go down.
From February 2003 to December 2005 I ate, slept, lived and breathed the musical in which I made both my Off-Broadway and Broadway debuts: AVENUE Q. Lots of information about the show can be found online, but here are some of the questions I was asked most often, both in interviews and by fans:
The darling Andrew Gans at Playbill.com has been so supportive of me over the years. He did several “Diva Talk” columns about me while I was in AVENUE Q, and you can read them by clicking on these links. He’s been kind enough to continue treating me like a Diva** long after my Broadway years, and you will find links to other “Diva Talk” interviews on other pages on this site. I’ve only included the links to full interviews. He’s included me in other columns that contain snippets or single quotes, all searchable on Playbill.com.
With the first Kate after the first reading at the York Theatre in May, 2000. This photo is courtesy of Rick Lyon. It was at this performance that I (as Kate) sang “Like it Was” from MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG and “Taylor the Latte Boy” by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler, back when the show was being pitched as a TV project where other writers would feasibly contribute music. “Like it Was” is still my favorite Sondheim song. It’s such a true song.
I think we were still in Broadway previews when this photo was taken by Joseph Marzullo for TheatreMania. I don’t recall why Rick Lyon wasn’t available for this photo (with Jennifer Barnhart and John Tartaglia, above), but all four of us did the interview that accompanied it. We had no idea what the future held. We were just so happy to be there.
This production photo by Carol Rosegg appeared with the AVENUE Q review in Time Magazine. That’s when I finally realized that the whole Broadway thing was real.
This was a wow... to be made into a Broadway Bear for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ annual fundraiser. And while my bear didn’t bring in as much as the Johnny/Rod bear or the Rick/Jen/Trekkie bear in subsequent years, it was the first Q bear made. That was an honor, indeed.
Part of the infamous AVENUE Q Tony campaign that wound up changing the awards season rules. It would be nice to live in a parallel universe where we had won without all the bunting and banners and glad-handing. But I was grateful to be on the poster.
One of the more memorable post-Tony events was being part of “Broadway Week” on “Live with Regis and Kelly” and performing puppet versions of Regis, Kelly, and Gelman. This press photo shows us at the end of the show. It does not show us singing “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” to a track and me missing the beginning because I couldn’t hear the music over the audience applause when we were introduced. That’s on YouTube somewhere, me looking like a deer in the headlights.
** note that when I say that I am grateful that Andrew has continues to treat me like and think of me as a “Diva,” I do not mean diva in the lowercase sense: the word that implies bad behavior and tantrums and entitlement and snobbery. I do not wish to be that sort of diva at all. I mean the Playbill.com definition of Diva, which I myself have created based on the context of the subjects of the column: simply, a well-regarded and respected actress of great quality who is vital in and around the New York theatre scene.
