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Avenue Q's Gary Coleman To Live On

The Gary Coleman character in the long-running hit musical Avenue Q will stay in the show, despite the death of the real life Coleman.

Sitting alone at the rear of the house at New World Stages on Friday night, Jeff Whitty wept after the performance of “Avenue Q.” Mr. Whitty, the book writer for that Tony-winning puppet musical, was not crying at his own handiwork. He shed his tears in mourning for the actor Gary Coleman, who had died earlier in the day, and in relief that “Avenue Q,” which includes a satirical character based on Mr. Coleman, the star of the television series “Diff’rent Strokes,” had been well received by the audience after some surgical changes to the show. Despite some very serious consideration that “Avenue Q” would require significant revision or have to drop the role altogether, Mr. Whitty said that Gary Coleman, the character, would live on in the musical. “After watching it tonight, I would miss him too much,” Mr. Whitty said. “Personally, I would miss him terribly.”

Puppet Cleavage Banned In Colorado

A billboard company in Colorado Springs (home to Focus On The Family, numerous megachurches, and a completely devastated city infrastructure) has banned a bus stop campaign for Avenue Q. Because it shows puppet cleavage.

The puppet's name is Lucy the Slut. She's a pink Sesame Street-like puppet in the touring Broadway show “Avenue Q.” "Avenue Q" is a Tony-winning musical about twenty-something New Yorkers, both human and puppets, searching for life and love. The show addresses issues like sex, drinking, and surfing the Web for porn. Lamar Advertising rejected the ad for bus shelters, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper. "We were in the process of putting it on the presses when one of the top execs saw it and said, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Colorado Springs market,’" according to Kristy Maple, marketing director for New Space Entertainment.

(Via Avenue Q author Jeff Whitty)