Avenue Q Returns To Off-Broadway

After a mere month-long hiatus, the popular musical Avenue Q re-opens in New York City today, this time at Off-Broadway's New World Stages in Times Square. The amazing thing about this opening is that it marks the extremely rare event of a show beginning life Off-Broadway (at the Vineyard Theatre), transferring successfully to Broadway (at the John Golden Theatre), enjoying a healthy multi-year Broadway run, closing, and then almost instantaneously transferring back to Off-Broadway. Rare though this approach is, it seems logical since the "puppet musical", which is still known and loved by audiences, will be cheaper to produce Off-Broadway and will not have to fill as many seats. This "new" Avenue Q is essentially the same production as the one seen on Broadway, but it features brand new cast members.

Avenue Q To Return To Off-Broadway!

It appears that we may have eulogized Avenue Q too soon. At the closing performance at the John Golden Theatre on September 13, the show's producers announced that though the beloved puppet musical may be leaving Broadway, it won't be leaving New York City. The show will re-open on October 9 at the Off-Broadway theater complex New World Stages. So Avenue Q fans need only walk five blocks north to see their favorite Sesame Street-inspired satirical musical now. This kind of move, taking a show from Broadway to Off-Broadway, is highly unusual, but actually makes a lot of sense for this particular show. Avenue Q already proved that it can do well Off-Broadway with its pre-Broadway Vineyard Theatre run, and even the long-running Broadway production never completely ran out of steam - the show still has many fans and still draws a fair number of tourists. Moving Avenue Q to a smaller Off-Broadway space, which will be easier to fill and likely has far cheaper rent, could be a very smart, innovative move. It will be interesting to see if any other smaller Broadway shows might try the same strategy in the future. Casting for the Off-Broadway production has not been announced yet, but tickets are already on sale.