So T and I won these tickets to see a matinee of the Australian production of Avenue Q.  Basically, the day we landed in Sydney from the US a couple of weeks ago, we found a copy of this free weekly magazine called The Brag and it had this thing in it like “Email us and win tickets to Avenue Q” and we were like, whatever, this magazine is like a week old, probably someone already did it, but we did it anyway and bam they gave us some tickets.  I guess no one else reads that section.

Well I happened to have seen Avenue Q on Broadway and thought it was funny and that T would like it, so I was pretty happy.  Plus he Googled it and found out that the cheapest tickets are like $79.

It reminded me of going to a show in New York in every way except that they didn’t give out programs, they sold them for $15 apiece.  I asked the usher if they had regular programs, aside from the souvenir programs, and he was like “Um, no, theaters don’t do that.”  I could have been like, “Actually, buttface, they do,” but I didn’t think that would make me any friends, so I just sat down and imagined information about the show.

The main reason we wanted the program was to see if any of the actors were American, but it turned out to be more fun to guess based on whether they slipped up and sounded Australian.  Most of them did once or twice, but it wasn’t really obvious.  The funny part (to me) was the set.  The show is set in Brooklyn, and this production seemed to be set in the part of Brooklyn where the housing stock is mainly Australian condos.  It was way too clean, for one thing, and also way too pastel.  Also the doorknobs were up high like Australian doorknobs and the tops of the buildings were infested with those old-fashioned TV antennae that I now associate largely with Australia (not many people here have cable).

I am kind of obsessed with the differences in building materials and styles of house between the two countries so I had fun picking out everything that I would change about the set, and then annoying T by telling him all about it.  Halfway through the second act I was like “I’ve got it!  The frames around the windows need to be black instead of white!” and T was like, “…What?  I guess.”  (Later I Googled the original NY set and was vindicated.)

Anyway it was a good show and we both had a great time - I recommend it if you’ve got 79 Australian dollars kicking around in your pocket.

Filed in Different countries can be different, Out and about on Monday, August 17, 2009 ·