Jeff Marx

"If you told me a year ago that our show would be playing in Las Vegas, I would've said you're crazy," admits Jeff Marx, one half of the songwriting team behind Broadway's rags-to-riches fairy tale of success, "Avenue Q." Robert Lopez, his collaborator, nods in agreement. They weren't the only ones taken by surprise.

The disarmingly cross-eyed puppets of  “Avenue Q” may have taken up a more modest residence than in touring productions past, but they're still thoroughly engaging in DOMA Theatre Company's accomplished local revival, which remains faithful to the spirit of the 2004 Tony-winning musical in every way that counts. A few compromises in budget and stage space notwithstanding, Richard Israel 's savvy direction honors without embellishment the big furry heart of creators Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty's satirical adult spin on our collective “Sesame Street”-infused sensibilities.

The disarmingly cross-eyed puppets of  “Avenue Q” may have taken up a more modest residence than in touring productions past, but they're still thoroughly engaging in DOMA Theatre Company's accomplished local revival, which remains faithful to the spirit of the 2004 Tony-winning musical in every way that counts. A few compromises in budget and stage space notwithstanding, Richard Israel 's savvy direction honors without embellishment the big furry heart of creators Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty's satirical adult spin on our collective “Sesame Street”-infused sensibilities.

The musical always begins with the same songs: "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?" and that disillusioned anthem of a generation caught between what college promises and what the real world delivers, "It Sucks to Be Me."

HAVING written the musical "Avenue Q" with the songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, I'm glad none of us knew what lay ahead once we were done. If we had known, we might have frozen in terror and never been able to finish. Blissfully unaware of our futures, we wrote the show during marathon sessions at Starbucks, in diners, in each others' cramped apartments. We'd get actors together to perform it, bare-bones, for an audience, and we'd take what we learned and go back to work — at a humid theater festival without air conditioning, at least once in a park, and frequently in our director's living room because, unlike us, he actually had one. During the writing process, which lasted for five years in Jeff and Bobby's case and 2 1/2 in mine, we put "Avenue Q" before a "test" audience several times.

If those young guys behind the biggest buzz in musical theater this summer appear a bit giddy, it's understandable. "Avenue Q," their frisky part-humans, part-puppets, all-adult musical about the shock of the real world beyond college -- a hit off-Broadway in the spring -- has moved to Broadway. Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, the show's composers and lyricists, and Jeff Whitty, the librettist, are not only newcomers to the Broadway scene but to the theater in general.

The musical always begins with the same songs: "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?" and that disillusioned anthem of a generation caught between what college promises and what the real world delivers, "It Sucks to Be Me."

Mark Swed's perceptive review of the American Youth Symphony concert ["Youth Symphony Acts All Grown Up," March 29] was marred by his mean-spirited jab at a patron who bought, at auction, the right to conduct the national anthem. I was present at the concert, and the gentleman in question clearly had prepared seriously for this role. What fun to watch an amateur who was thrilled to have this honor! Moreover, it is through contributions such as his that the American Youth Symphony is supported.

After ending its exclusive run in Las Vegas in May, "Avenue Q," the 2004 Tony Award-winner for best musical, became a free agent, and although a national tour has not been announced, the R-rated, people-and-puppets blockbuster is coming to Southern California next year. San Diego's Old Globe Theatre plans to mount its own production of the musical comedy at Spreckels Theatre downtown. It is scheduled to run from June 30 through Aug. 5 as part of the Old Globe's summer season.

Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" has ruffled a lot of feminist feathers. It shouldn't. It's a play of its time, and it shows how an intelligent woman dealt with life in that milieu. Modern directors try awfully hard to make it speak to today's sensibilities. A recent Shakespeare Orange County production achieved its point with Kate's hilarious realization of her power.

HAVING written the musical "Avenue Q" with the songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, I'm glad none of us knew what lay ahead once we were done. If we had known, we might have frozen in terror and never been able to finish. Blissfully unaware of our futures, we wrote the show during marathon sessions at Starbucks, in diners, in each others' cramped apartments. We'd get actors together to perform it, bare-bones, for an audience, and we'd take what we learned and go back to work — at a humid theater festival without air conditioning, at least once in a park, and frequently in our director's living room because, unlike us, he actually had one. During the writing process, which lasted for five years in Jeff and Bobby's case and 2 1/2 in mine, we put "Avenue Q" before a "test" audience several times.

"If you told me a year ago that our show would be playing in Las Vegas, I would've said you're crazy," admits Jeff Marx, one half of the songwriting team behind Broadway's rags-to-riches fairy tale of success, "Avenue Q." Robert Lopez, his collaborator, nods in agreement. They weren't the only ones taken by surprise.

If those young guys behind the biggest buzz in musical theater this summer appear a bit giddy, it's understandable. "Avenue Q," their frisky part-humans, part-puppets, all-adult musical about the shock of the real world beyond college -- a hit off-Broadway in the spring -- has moved to Broadway. Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, the show's composers and lyricists, and Jeff Whitty, the librettist, are not only newcomers to the Broadway scene but to the theater in general.

Everyone thinks one-act plays are easy, quick, short and effortless. But a short play is more difficult to deal with than a full-length play, a truth most one-act festivals drive home. This year's One-Act Festival, presented by Orange Coast College Repertory in Costa Mesa, is no exception. Of the six plays in the festival, only four are shown at each performance, and the four seen run the gamut of quality, style and content.

Ba-da-boom! That's the sound that comes after a tired joke. The Borscht Belt drum roll. The original laugh track, but with a smirk. It's funny that the characters in Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" say that so often. As writers for a '50s TV comedy show, they know they're not always as clever as they could be. But they keep trying. Take my one-liner, please! Simon's play is a lot like that.