Dunes Summer Theatre Artistic Director Steve Scott reminded me Saturday that the bawdy Broadway puppet musical “Avenue Q” bested “Wicked” when this “NOT ‘Sesame Street’ “ stage story first opened on Broadway in July 2003 and later won three Tony Awards in 2004 for Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
Dunes Arts Summer Theatre is concluding its landmark 75th season with this fun puppet parade continuing through Aug. 9, and I was in the third row last Saturday for the opening weekend.
The clever musical with a combined human and puppet cast uses humor and an original score to explore adulthood, relationships, careers and the search for “purpose.”
Directed by Danny Kapinos with music direction by Aaron Kaplan, “Avenue Q” features an incredible scenic design of a stretch of tenement apartments, as imagined by scenic designer Michael Lasswell, as set in a rundown New York City apartment building on Avenue Q.
It was in May 2008 that the Broadway hit show “Avenue Q” finally found its way to Chicago for a two-week run, dispelling what New York critics originally feared that Big Apple and Windy City audiences wouldn’t pay Broadway ticket prices “to watch a puppet show.”
Featuring music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty and based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, the show follows recent college graduate Princeton as he searches for “his purpose in life.” Along the way, he befriends an eclectic group of neighbors including the aspiring comedian Brian and his therapist fiancée, as well as kindergarten teaching assistant Kate Monster, investment banker Rod, slacker Nicky and a former child television star, as well as reclusive Trekkie Monster.
Despite the “colorful” puppets in the cast, this is a show for adult audiences, not young children.
Some of the popular tunes from the show include “There’s a Fine, Fine, Line,” “What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?” “Everyone’s a Little Racist” and “My Girlfriend Lives in Canada.”
The sound and microphones were not very fine-tuned Saturday, making it tough to hear all of those very funny anticipated lines, many of which I have memorized from my previous visits to “Avenue Q.”
The director and cast have also updated some of the original 2003 references for 2026, including terms such as “influencer,” “ChatGPT,” “OnlyFans,” “President Donald Trump,” “selling items on Facebook Marketplace” and “texting.” Noticeably gone are the script former references to “Judge Judy,” “President George W. Bush” and “selling things on eBay.”
The talented cast stars Quinn Kelch as both Princeton and Rod, Mika Wurk as Kate Monster, Josh Bernaski as both Nicky and Trekkie Monster, Clay W. Muir as Brian the comic and Aubrey Malita as his fiancée, Michah Hughes as late TV star Gary Coleman and Maya Moreau as Lucy and also the Bad Idea Bears.
The last time I recall “Avenue Q” playing this close to our area was a one-night non-equity touring run playing the stage at the old Star Plaza Theatre in 2011 in Merrillville with tickets priced at $45 back 15 years ago.
These performances in Michigan City continue the next two weeks at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, and tickets are $15 to $35 and worth every penny at dunesARTS.org or by calling 219- 879-7509.
MAD MAESTRO
NWI Symphony conductor Kirk Muspratt is pointing his baton at Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson about this week’s congested downtown traffic. Of course, the city is gearing up this week for the 2026 Lollapalooza music festival, prompting closed streets and redirected traffic around Grant Park, which is the scene for the event hosted Thursday through Sunday, and drawing an estimated half million attendees.
Maestro Muspratt’s missive posted to Facebook at 1 a.m. Wednesday reads that Mayor Johnson should vacate his office with the following rant: “To the Mayor of Chicago: I do not know why we are paying all these high taxes when the people you have hired to be in charge of traffic in Chicago are so completely incompetent and uncaring. A few nights ago, it took me one hour to get from McCormick Place to where I live on Delaware Place (John Hancock Tower). It is three miles away. Tonight (Tuesday), to get OUT of the city at 3:30 p.m., it took me one hour to get from where I live in the Loop to McCormick Place. Do you have any idea that people live and work downtown? Where are your traffic people? When was the last time you were in a car when all this is going on in a city? Please just quit so that we can get a real leader and someone who is aware of what is really going on in our streets.”
Muspratt led a free outdoor summer concert at Centennial Park in Munster Tuesday night.
ON HIS MIND
It’s not just Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland in the tug-of-war debate about the location of planned data centers.
Headband-wearing music icon Willie Nelson, age 93, used social media on Tuesday to share his lament about a possible data center planned for his hometown of Abbott, Texas, stating: “I grew up in Abbott, and I still have a home there with farmed land where I can still see stars at night. And now our community, like many others, needs to fight against data centers invading our land. The last thing we need is a loud, water-thieving, light-polluting data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter). The strength of rural America has never come from big industrial footprints. It comes from generations of people, open spaces, local businesses, and a connection to the land. All of America deserves thoughtful stewardship that doesn’t steal farmland (where our essential shared food is grown) and small family farmers’ livelihoods, and not data centers that only destroy the environment around them. Whoever controls food and water, controls the masses. Let’s not allow our own demise or give up control over necessary resources in the U.S. and especially in Abbott. – Willie Nelson”
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com.