BROADWAY is about to be gripped by Spring (Awards) Fever – which means producers cooking up schemes to rack up as many accolades as they can.
The producers of “Avenue Q,” for example, are trying to get their little puppet show – now that it’s on Broadway – nominated for the same awards it was in the running for last year.
After “Avenue Q” debuted a year ago at off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theater, it received several Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations.
The producers think it should be up for those awards again this year, because the show was substantially revised for Broadway. They’ve sent letters making that case to both awards groups.
The Drama Desk turned them down.
“Once we consider a show, there is no reason to consider it again,” said William Wolf, president of the Drama Desk.
The Outer Critics Circle will make its decision this weekend, said its longtime president, Marjorie Gunner.
Kevin McCollum, one of the producers, said the Drama Desk’s rejection was “disappointing to us.”
He pointed out that, on Broadway, “Avenue Q” has a new lighting and sound designer, new orchestrations, two additional musicians and the clincher: bigger puppets!
He also said that, due to the illness of one of the actors, the show had to cut short its run at the Vineyard Theater last year and so a number of Drama Desk and voters did not have a chance to see it.
“Avenue Q” lost the award for Best Musical last year to “Hairspray.”
“We were hobbled by not having enough people see our show who were in the Drama Desk community,” McCollum said – although I suspect that even if every Drama Desk voter had seen “Avenue Q” twice, “Hairspray” still would have won.
McCollum’s argument that “Avenue Q” was substantially changed for Broadway doesn’t quite square with an article, written by “Avenue Q” bookwriter Jeff Whitty, that is posted on the show’s Web site.
“During the time away, I made a bunch of tweaks, mostly minor, to the story and dialogue,” Whitty wrote in a journal he kept for Next magazine.
“People who saw the show off-Broadway won’t notice any dramatic differences, except (hopefully) the show is sharper and the action moves more swiftly.”
McCollum responded that Whitty’s aritcle only dealt with “the book side” of the show.
“From the music and lyrics side, there were a lot of changes,” he said, adding that seeing the show on Broadway is “a very different experience” from seeing it off-Broadway.
THE musicians union, which last year shut down Broadway to prevent the use of virtual orchestras, has agreed to let “The Joy of Sex” use one at the Variety Arts Theater, off-Broadway.
The union hammered out a deal with owners of the Variety Arts yesterday.
Ben Sprecher said the union “capitulated completely.”
But David Lennon, president of Local 802, said: “For the next 10 years, no show that plays the Variety Arts can use one without the union’s permission. That is hardly a capitulation.”
