Alphabet Tunes

With a cast that includes people and plush puppets, Casa Mañana's upcoming production, the 2004 Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q, is obviously inspired by Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Promotional material for the show warns that the show "may not be suitable for all audiences" due to "adult humor, comic vulgarities and language," and reviewers use words like "subversive" to describe it. But if you ask me, Jim Henson's shows were pretty subversive and vulgar in their own right, especially during the early years. Hell, the second episode of The Muppet Show was titled "Sex and Violence." I remember old Muppet Show clips in which characters were eaten by monsters and blown apart with dynamite. And you know Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem -- especially Janice -- had to be high. Avenue Q, in which a recent college graduate puppet comes to New York City searching for his place in the world, seems tame by comparison. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, July 10; 8 p.m. Friday July 11; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, July 12, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 13, at Bass Performance Hall, Fourth and Calhoun streets in Fort Worth. Tickets are $27 to $79. Call 817-212-4280 or visit casamanana.org.
July 8-10, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., July 11, 8 p.m.; Sat., July 12, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., July 13, 2 & 7 p.m., 2008