When tracking down that video yesterday from the Tony-winning Best Musical from 2004, Avenue Q, I came across another video from the show which I thought was a lot of fun and worth following up with. It's a new recording of the song from the show, "For Now." It was done last year as a reunion of the original cast -- and it seems others who played in the show on Broadway -- on behalf of the Actors Fund to raise money. The video was made, like so many others during the pandemic, as one of those Zoom productions. But unlike most others, if not all others, this actually fit the song wonderfully -- for a couple of reasons. The first is that the design setting for Avenue Q is a background of brownstone apartments where the human and puppet characters live, and actors don't just perform down front on stage, but often popping out of the windows of their apartments. So, the boxes of the Zoom video are designed to look a little like that (as you can see below), and everyone singing in their own "window" fits in exactly with the show. But also, the song fits its time near-perfectly. "For Now" ends the show with the same music but changed lyrics of an earlier number, "It Sucks to Be Me." And the new words are about how whatever problems you're facing in your life, they're only problems "For Now." What's a very nice song and enjoyable way to end the evening takes on a new, touching resonance during the shutdown of a pandemic. They even tweak one line near the end (which I suspect was by the original song as a way to be able to stay updated whenever the show is performed), and there's a visual addendum in there, as well. Fun, too, is that they not only mix in together the actors and puppets -- but they've redesigned a few of the puppets to make them appear as if they too have been sheltering at home much too long.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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