The Family may not Focus on Lucy's lady lumps

At last, evidence that Spokane is not the worst when it comes to prudish, holier-than-thou objections to not-all-that-racy aspects of pop culture.

There are those in Colorado Springs who object to obsessive [um, excessive — now there's a Freudian slip for you] cleavage.

On a foam-rubber puppet.

Now, depictions of homosexuals -- as long as they look like nice, clean-cut Republican boys -- well, that's just hunky-dory.

review of *Avenue Q*

at the INB Center through Valentine's Day

You know how psychologists sometimes encourage troubled little kids to talk to dolls? Externalizing feelings like that — talking to a pretend-friend — helps the tykes reveal and examine anxieties that they otherwise might not be willing to discuss.
That’s what it’s like watching Avenue Q.
The puppets do the heavy lifting for us. Are you a lot more likely to discuss the weather and the latest sports scores than you are to earnestly engage another human being on issues that really matter, like sex and race and the meaning of life?
Well, join the club. We could all use a little puppet therapy.
Bobo feels fortunate to have witnessed a musical as amusing, edgy and yes, inspiring, as Avenue Q.
Brent Michael DiRoma has expressive voices in both halves of his significant gay-straight equivalence doubling as both Princeton and Rod.
And while I was initially disappointed that the Thursday night audience was getting the understudy Kate Monster, Ashley Eileen Bucknam and her talented doubling demonstrated that conventional Kate & provocative Lucy live, at least a little bit, inside many women.
From the soundtrack alone, you wouldn’t know how extensively this show uses TV screens to spoof the simple-minded teaching methods of Sesame Street, then twists them to give them a wicked adult kick.
The sound mix, however, was off: some voices were shrieky-squealy; sometimes the five-man band simply overwhelmed the lyrics with too much volume.
The doubling of puppets could be confusing -- three actors have no puppets, some have two, some have more than two, some throw their voices over to puppets they’re not holding; some puppets have two operators, one of whom never speaks or sings. Couldn’t the creators have divided the roles more generously? (But as I said, the doubling of Rod (gay) and Princeton (straight) does highlight how romantic-longing is a human emotion, not exclusive either to my kind of sexuality or yours.
Face-to-face puppet squabbles are funny. (In general, the puppet-choreography was remarkably expressive and well done.)
Because of the puppet confusions, personally, I never quite resolved the look at the puppets/look at the humans dilemma.
Bobble-head chirpiness and dance moves, when shared by both humans and puppets, are funny -- it mocks the over-serious side of ourselves and unlocks the playfulness. That’s what Avenue Q does: It gives us permission, during a two-hour recess for overworked adults, to pause and be creative and accepting again. It allows us to look at ourselves from the perspective of the kid inside, who always wanted better things — back when we first were dreaming our dreams.

And I feel embarrassed about having bought into WestCoast Entertainment’s cautions about not over-stressing the profanity content.
(Hey, cussing is nothing to be proud of, and we should all limit it, especially in public -- which I DO find offensive — but studies have shown that a little cussing is physiologically a good thing, and we should stop being in denial about how we all do it from time to time. Sort of like this show’s themes about admitting that racism, porn, sexual desire and schadenfreude are not exactly utterly foreign to the vast majority of us.)
But it’s about time to shed the poor-little-provincial-Spokane attitude. Yes, we’re in the red half of a blue state, and I did see two walkouts tonight, and the mega-church members probably aren’t flocking to a gay-porn-puppet show. But judging from the ample size and laughter of Thursday night’s opening-night crowd, there’s a critical mass of folks here now who aren’t fazed by those New York City liberal ways.
Avenue Q, far from being childish or obscene, is enlivening, enspiriting, and very human and forgiving.

DiRoma’s voice was particularly expressive on “Purpose,” his longing-song. In general, Bobo was pleasantly surprised by how often this show, often marketed as being full of potty-mouth puppets and oh-my-God-somebody-might-be-offended, instead has plenty of quiet, touching, serious, wise, well-integrated moments. And DiRoma made his “I want” song dramatic.
The pair of Bad Idea Bears (Kerri Brackin and Jason Heymann) were hilarious: They were externalizations of our guilty impulses. (So is Trekkie Monster.) The show lets us see how easy it turn one Long Island Iced Tea into four, how easy it is to fall into bed with the wrong/right person.
Treating serious stuff in a silly manner is cathartic, too. (Monsters are discriminated against as “people of fur.”) The song about racism devolves into a soft-shoe routine: silly but serious, but silly, all at once.
The cast was vocally strong.

The best test of your threshold for what’s funny or not in this show might be Kate’s crabby old bitch of a boss at the kindergarten where she teaches, one Miss Lavinia Thistletwat, who insists on being called by her last name, because otherwise the kids wouldn’t respect her.
As for the "Porn" song, it’s hilarious when Trekkie self-censors (covering his mouth instead of chiming in for the 15th time with “for porn!”) — especially when juxtaposed with the line soon after: ‘Hey, guys, just grab your dick and double-click ... for porn!”
A cheap joke that appeals to my own sensibilities: Rod, as a Republican and an investment banker, is good for ... absolutely nothing. And therefore he might as well just stay in the closet.

Soon after, Princeton and Kate are having loud, screaming missionary-position sex! (Can they do that onstage?) And then you realize, they’re just puppets.
Dislocating emotions from the actors to the bunches of fuzz and latex that they’re manipulating can be

In the context of all the puppet play, Gary Coleman stroking the broom obscenely got a bit too crude, too literal. But Gary and then Trekkie burying their faces lasciviously deep, deep into the bosoms of Lucy the Slut --that was hilarious.

Bucknam was touching on “a fine, fine line between love and a waste of time.” Again, lots of serious, thoughtful emotion here, given all the more impact by the fact that moments before, you were laughing at puppet-silliness.

And you’ll never think the same way again, ever, about the relationship between a slang word for orgasm and the word “commitment.” (Brilliant. Summarized in just two words the whole battle of the sexes.)

I don't know what Willis is doin' ...

...but_somebody's been skipping their court appearances.

With Avenue Q coming to the INB Center (Feb. 11-14), this wire story provides a sad footnote. Coleman has led a sad life, but he has also been willing to poke fun at himself (though he has threatened to sue the Avenue Q creatives*). And don't forget that in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, Coleman came in eighth out of 135 candidates.

* at the 2007 New York Comic Con

an interview with Steve Booth

(by phone from Dallas, 3 June 09; headshot from broadwayworld.com)

Steve Booth attended Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene and then went to UNLV on a theater scholarship. He’ll be playing the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (at CdA Summer Theater, June 13-27).
Booth has been on the road for the past six months with the musical version of Happy Days. As a result, he’s missing the first week of rehearsal in CdA.
You read that right: The actor singing the title role in CdA’s first show is flying in on Sunday and joining the rest of the cast on Monday morning, June 8 — just 130 hours before the curtain goes up on opening night.
Yikes. At least it’ll be a fun homecoming for Booth, who has lots of family and friends in the area.

In the summers of 2002-04 at Coeur d’Alene, Booth appeared in Anything Goes, West Side Story and Oklahoma!; Smokey Joe’s Café and Fiddler on the Roof; and Cats and Little Shop of Horrors.
He performed in the Las Vegas version of Avenue Q (he played Princeton and Rod), then returned to CdA three summers ago to play the title role in Pippin.
This is his first summer back since.

on Avenue Q:
Steve Booth: We had 10 shows a week, but two casts. So we did five shows a week — we covered for one another within the company, then were on standby for four of the other cast’s five shows every week.
Bobo: But God, living near the Strip … I hate that town.
Steve Booth: I know what you mean. But having gone to school there and doing Avenue Q — I kind of have a soft spot for Las Vegas.

Bobo: So what happened with *Glory Days*?
[from a phone interview on 5/2/08 with Bill Booth, Steve's father:]
Roger [Welch] came to see it in New York. Steve did an off-Broadway show called "Journey to the West," and five or six shows at the Paper Mill.
Glory Days was done at Circle in the Square, which seats about 700.
Steve plays Will, who opens and closes the show. All four characters have been away to college, but Will is the one who wants them to stick together. It's the night before the football alumni game; none of them made the team. He wants it to be the same among them, but it can't be. At the end, Will isn't sure what to do with his life.
One character has a big secret; Skip is the cynic, who's jaded and cynically aware; Andy is passionate, cocky, has a strong sense of self, but also a softer side
But it closed after 17 previews and just one night on Broadway [5/7/08].

[ IBDb.com entry here.
Glory Days: book by James Gardiner, music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire ]

Steve Booth reflects on his *Glory Days,* a year later:
Unfortunately, some bad decisions were made by higher-ups. We rushed moving the show from D.C. to Broadway. In D.C., it had gotten rave reviews and sold out.
It was a tiny little show, just four characters, so we went into it with small expectations and were pleasantly surprised.
Circle in the Square was a perfect size for this show -- a 3/4 thrust stage, so it was an easy transplant.
It opened up, and we made the move real fast.
But all of us actors -- who's gonna say not to go to Broadway? It was our dream. We were sort of flying by the seat of our pants.
The smarter move would have been to take some time, workshop it regionally a bit more. It's not a perfect show, but it's a good one.
But everything moved so fast. I think the producers didn't raise enough money so that, if it wasn't an immediate hit, they'd be able to keep it afloat until word of mouth helped it out.
As it was, they were banking on it coming to Broadway and getting rave reviews.
It could have gained a following; it could have earned some creative nods -- you know, some nominations or something.
But the kids that wrote it -- it was harder for them [for the show to close on opening night]. It was very hard for all of us, but it was harder on them. They'd been writing that thing for a couple of years.
Nick Blaemire was also appearing in *Cry Baby* at the same time.
It was a learning experience for them.
You know, I got my Broadway credit, but when it closed that fast, my first thought was: "Darn, we didn't get to record a cast album." So that's why I'm excited: right after Joseph, I'm going to New York and we're going to record it for Chickaboom Records. [sh-k-boom Records; sh-k-boom.com]
So it's not dead -- it was sold to NPI, and it's being done a lot in Japan. This Japanese boy-group, kind of like the Japanese version of N Sync, they're doing it a lot.
And Glory Days will be done in high schools -- it's an easy, cheap show, with just four guys and good stories.
We should have gone off-Broadway after we were done with D.C.

[photo: cast of Glory Days, with Steven Booth as Will, on right; from jessepjohnson.com]

on preparing for Joseph:
Bobo: Did you watch Donny Osmond in the film, or are you one of those actors who studiously avoids watching previous performances of the same role?
Steve Booth: To tell you the truth, I wasn't that familiar with the show. I've never seen it onstage.
I've seen some clips of the movie. It's great as a reference point.
But I don't expect that Roger is just going to copy that thing. He'll have his own ideas.
I am not Donny Osmond. But I have listened to the music. I'm learning it on my own without watching the movie.

Roger is letting me come to rehearsals a week late. And I'm a little scared about missing the first week of rehearsal.
I mean, it's one of the leads, along with the Narrator. But the staging and the choreography -- it's not that hard, as long as I know my music.
Joseph is in his little skirt and he just sort of walks around -- there's not too much dancing for him.
I'm confident that in a week, I'll be able to get it.

On Sunday [June 7], we have two shows here in Dallas, then I'm getting on an 11 o'clock flight, and by Monday at 10:00, I'll get started on Joseph.
It's gonna be hard, but I have my book and my iPod, and I'm going through the script and highlighting everything.
I might make little notations where I might have ideas, where we might a little twist in the score, but I can't make a lot of choices. Mostly, I just need to be put into the show.
Roger has done this show before. It's not a new show to him. It'll be easy to work with him and with everyone who I know [in CdA]. It'd be a lot harder not knowing anyone. But then I would not have gotten the role if I did not already have relationships with people there. I have the confidence to pull it off.
I told Roger, anytime, I will come back. My whole family is there, so I get to see my family.

on the *Happy Days* tour:
We're in our second week in Dallas now. We started in October in L.A. We did it there to the end of November, then were on hiatus for a bit. So we've actually only been on tour since January, in Milwaukee.
This is my first tour. Some people like living out of a suitcase, but I like to be more settled.

[photo: Steven Booth, on left, as Richie in the musical version of *Happy Days,* with the Fonz and Ralph]



Bobo: Upcoming projects?
Steve Booth: Nothing for sure. I've been invited back to UNLV to do Company.
They bring in conservatory guest contracts to put past graduates on the main stage. I've never done any Sondheim, so I'm excited.
Then, at the end of August, I'm not sure, but I'm going back to New York. My plan is to go back to the city and do albums, get into classes. I'm all about bettering my work and saving money on tour.

Bobo: When did Roger offer you the part of Joseph?
Steve Booth: I think in late February, he brought it up and then in April he told me I was in.
Without the first week of rehearsal, I'm nervous.
Idaho was my home, but now New York is. I'm eager to get back to auditioning, but this worked out perfectly -- things are kinda slow now.
I'm 28 now, and it feels good to get back to my family.
I'm happy where I am in my career, even though I was late getting into theater.

I love to do it, and it paid for my college. But it wasn't until later that I thought I could make a living at it.
It's hard to feel like I'm an adult, even now, because I'm so passionate about it, and then, in the next second, I've got nothing.

I look at my dad, who is a businessman, has a regular 9-to-5 job. And he provided for us. I don't know that I'll ever have that. But I always know that I love to perform.

In high school, I just didn't know. In fact, the first show I was ever in, my girlfriend at the time was in it, so I auditioned.

My senior year at UNLV, I did a couple of musicals -- The Last Five Years in our black box and Floyd Collins on our medium-size stage -- both at the same time, and I was overwhelmed, but I do remember how much I loved it.

I wasn't just a theater kid -- I did sports and band and tried a lot of things. And I'm still learning -- I want to take classes. It has not stopped being exciting.

Bobo: And in New York, have you had to wait tables?
Steve Booth: I got lucky -- I haven't. Out of UNLV, I went to an open call for Avenue Q -- it wasn't an Equity call. And I got called back, and then the day after, I flew to New York, and then spent three months staying on people's couches, trying to make it as a non-Equity actor.
And then they flew me back to Vegas with full creative, and I worked as a caddy on golf courses, just put all my chips into making it -- it was a long, year-long, arduous auditioning process for *Avenue Q.*
But by flying to New York twice, that allowed me to go out and look for agents. So I got an agent out of it, and I saved a lot of money, so I was able to move to New York, where I've been lucky, getting little gigs, enough to keep me afloat.

Bobo: But now you're performing in front of the home crowd.
Steve Booth: "That's the funnest part, to do it for an audience, and my family gets to see me and have a fun time. To have my family there."

on touring with Happy Days:
“Being out on the road lately — people just aren’t coming. It’s a bit depressing to be giving 100 percent of yourself to a show, and the people aren’t there."

on CdA Summer Theater:
"Roger always hires great people. It's always fun -- I have not had a bad experience there. It's not a job where you make tons of money, but it's fun."

on what opening night for Joseph might be like, after just six days’ rehearsal:
“Come Saturday night, I may be a like a deer in the headlights, but they can push me around — if I’m in the wrong spot onstage, they can just push me into the right spot.”