It's a Fine, Fine Performance

As long as I briefly mentioned Avenue Q and Stephanie D'Abruzzo the other day here when writing about the Randy Rainbow parody -- as well as earlier her appearing at the Northwestern gala of alumni -- I thought it proper to follow-up with this.

I liked Avenue Q, though didn't love it (although I thought the second act was much stronger)  The songs are enjoyable, some are very funny -- the cheery "It Sucks to Be Me" and upbeat "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" are the most notable, along with a few others -- though I don't find the score consistently at that level.  But one song stood out so far for me surrounded by an ocean of light-hearted, over-the-top comic numbers, that also includes "The Internet is for Porn" and "If I Was Gay."  It's not only the sole totally-serious number in the show, but it's also gorgeous, and indeed would be a gem in any context.  

The song is "There's a Fine, Fine Line," sung by the puppet character Kate Monster, performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo.  (The characters in the show are a mix of humans and puppets, with their puppeteers in clear view)  Basically, the quick set-up for the song is that one of the other puppet characters who Kate has been dating has told her that the time he's spent with her is keeping him from pursuing what he came to New York to do, and they break up.

The video taken during a live production is shaky, and starts out quite-awful, but 80% of it turns out to be good, so it's worth it for the gem of a performance.  There's another live video of the song from another production with a another actress, and the video quality is terrific -- but the performance, while good, pales to Ms. D'Abruzzo, who got a Tony nomination for her role.