Avenue Q saved from the wrecking ball

September 14, 12:44 PMNY Theater Producer ExaminerMeredith Lucio

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Ann Harada and the Cast of "Avenue Q"
AP/Shirley Herz Associates

You gotta love producer Kevin McCollum as the man certainly knows how to keep the rest of the industry on its toes. During the closing performance of the Broadway run of Avenue Q, Kevin and his partners Jeffrey Seller and Robyn Goodman made a startling announcement to an enthusiastic audience. Avenue Q may have closed this Sunday on Broadway but it will live again at New World Stages in an Off-Broadway run starting October 9th.

This is fantastic news not just for puppet-lovers and investors of the show but also for Off Broadway. Traditionally Off-Broadway has been considered a pre-Broadway pitstop which helps a production slowly build its audience and brand awareness and, if successful enough, gives the production legs to make it for that last lap to the Broadway stage. Last season's Broadway 80s-fest Rock of Ages did it successfully. This season's Fela will try to do it successfully this season. While there are many valid reasons both financial and otherwise for choosing that business model, Avenue Q is possibly the first show to try to exploit the reverse- moving from a Broadway to an Off-Broadway house.

By making the move to Off-Broadway Avenue Q will be able to limit their costs by taking advantage of a smaller theatre while also using less expensive contracts for much (if not all) of their personnel. With a well-branded show like Avenue Q coming to Off-Broadway, one of the industry's most challenging financial environments has an opportunity to reaquaint itself with consumers who have long lost their way to this kind of intimate theatre in New York.

Avenue Q has brand awareness. That brand awareness could have some positive residual effects not just for the other shows at New World Stages (and if I were Toxic Avenger or Altar Boys I'd send the producers of Avenue Q flowers, today) but also for other shows in the Off Broadway league. This move could also be a big push toward helping Off Broadway reveal one way in which it actually has value over Broadway. Would you rather see your favorite show, music, actor in a setting of a thousand other people or four-hundred? It's like the difference between seeing Joe Nichols or Taylor Swift in Madison Square Garden versus The Bitter End. I know my answer.

Only time can reveal whether or not Avenue Q's move is a smart one. One thing we can put money on, is that every commercial producer in the city, will be watching the 'Q's to see if such a move might be worth doing again.