Trekkie Monster - Avenue Q Promotional Events

Avenue Q Promotional Events

On September 30, 2004, the day of the first Bush–Kerry presidential debate, on a stage set up in Times Square, the cast of Avenue Q presented their version of the debate, called Avenue Q&A, with portrait puppets of Bush and Kerry created by Rick Lyon. Eighteen television networks covered the event. Lyon operated the Bush puppet, while Jennifer Barnhart operated the Kerry puppet. Each puppet sang responses to questions from Avenue Q's concerned residents, and the whole cast sang "Vote Your Heart" (see Other Songs above) to the rain-drenched crowd.

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa puppets created by Lyon hosted the first few minutes of an episode of Live with Regis and Kelly. In addition, Rod and John Tartaglia did "man on the street"-style interviews on the 2005 NBC broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Rod and John also appeared alongside other Broadway stars in a World AIDS Day benefit concert of Pippin held at the Manhattan Center on November 29, 2004; Rod played "The Head."

In another World AIDS Day benefit in 2005, the original cast of Avenue Q and the cast of the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof presented a 10-minute spoof of both musicals called "Avenue Jew." As a brief prologue, Trekkie Monster plays the Fiddler theme and then eats the fiddle. Tevye, his wife Golde, and his two remaining daughters, having immigrated to the USA, arrive on Avenue Jew, an area inhabited by Jewish versions of the Avenue Q characters. In the song "The Puppets/The Humans," the humans are fed up with the puppets upstaging them. Jewish-American Princeton arrives asking "What do you do with a B.A. in Yiddish?" One of Tevye's daughter's, Shprintze, falls in love with Princeton, but Tevye forbids their union. The Matchmaker, played by Mrs. Thistletwat, sets Rod up with Lazar Wolf ("I'm a lonely man, Tevye"). After a very brief interior monologue, Tevye finally consents to Princeton and Shprintze's marriage. Rod and Lazar Wolf also wish to be wed, and ask permission from the Tsar puppet, who forbids a gay marriage. Ben Brantley interrupts, asking who the real Jewish people in the cast are, and the company concludes that "everyone's a little bit Jewish" and "in theatre you can be whatever you want to be."

In November 2005, the Avenue Q website held a "One Night Stand" contest for amateur puppeteers and their puppets. Andrew MacDonald Smith and his puppet Maurice Tipo won, and on March 10, 2006, appeared in the evening performance in the opening song, the café scene, and the curtain call.

In July 2006, several members of Avenue Q performed for the opening ceremonies of the Gay Games in Chicago. In October 2006, Jonathan Root and Princeton presented the award for Best Young Adult Novel at the Quill Awards. In November 2006, the London cast appeared on the BBC program Children in Need and performed "It Sucks To Be Me." In December 2006, the London cast performed on the Royal Variety Performance and performed "It Sucks To Be Me," "For Now," and "Special," in which Lucy The Slut suggested through lyrics and dialogue she was making a pass at Charles, Prince of Wales.

The cast and puppets appeared briefly in the 2007 "This Is New York" tourist ad campaign.

The cast and puppets took to the stage at Trafalgar Square on 4 July 2009 as part of the "London Pride 2009" celebration, performing "If You Were Gay", "Special" and "For Now" with 'Lucy The Slut' assuring all the ladies in the audience that she is bisexual.

Cast members appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on August 13, 2009 to promote the last month of shows, performing "The Internet is for Porn" for the first time on national television.

As a response to the Muppets' Bohemian Rhapsody video, Avenue Q created a video called We Will Rock Q. Released on YouTube on May 4, 2010, it features the Off-Broadway cast performing covers of the Queen songs "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".