Lauren of laurganism.com had devised this ingenious way of helping promote the musical Avenue Q in Manila. In her catchy post “Win a Free Ticket to Avenue Q and a Date with Me!”, Lauren gives a lucky blogger the chance to watch the musical for free during Press “screening” and the opportunity to be her date for the night. That’s hitting two birds with one stone, where one’s a phoenix and the other a gryphon. What bloke in his right and freeloading mind wouldn’t want to give this chance a shot?
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I don’t know just how many did join the “contest” but judging from the 37 comments the post got to date, Avenue Q had acquired a whole lot of publicity from this alone. The winner would just have to make a review of the musical soon after and that’s about it. But things did not turn out according to plan somewhere and there were unforeseen complications here and there which meant there was only one ticket but it’s all good, still.
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The moment I read the SMS off an unregistered number and, a few seconds after, a twit that read “… And the winner has been contacted. lolz,” I knew I’d won a date with Lauren. Yes folks, THE Lauren Dado. How I did it is nothing short of making a hoho-man of myself in a paragraph-worth of name dropping, competition dissing, over exaggerations, and fake credentials. A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do to win. Of course, iKeed!
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In excitement over this development, I scoured the depths of the Internet got the Avenue Q CD so I could have an idea of what to expect given that I have only ever heard one song from it, “It Sucks To Be Me,” once about two years ago. I just knew the Broadway musical won several Tony’s and that in itself presupposes kickassery so I used my bestest conjuring powers to get the soundtrack. Research preparations, checked.
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I was set on going hardcore-critic the moment I could have written that Avenue Q review, honestly. Whether that was a good or bad thing, I would have to wait until after I finally get to watch it. Below are some of the questions I was itching to have answered:
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1. Did the local production change the subjects they used in the songs to reflect a more local flavor? Would they substitute Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for George Bush? A localized religious following instead of mentioning the Jews? A far province instead of Canadaaaaa? Do we experience the play’s true form?
2. We’ve heard Aiza Sequerra, Rachel Alejandro, and Frenchie Dy sing before, but could they project that unique puppet-like voice for this unprecedented grand puppet production? If you had observed, puppets speak and sing in a voice with superior enunciation level and clarity that kids would have no trouble understanding. Puppets didn’t get to have normal voices until the advent of Crank Yankers. Could the local actors deliver?
3. Since the characters in the play are intended to be parodies of Sesame Street characters, the voice alone should give who it is the stage performers are bastardizing, for lack of a better term. Anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street can easily identify who’s who. I did just by listening to the Avenue Q soundtrack. Did they represent?
4. Seeing the puppets’ heads from the Avenue Q in Manila poster, those don’t at all look like the original puppets! Or are the ones used in the play the original ones? If they’re not, are they as equally adorable as those used on Broadway?

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I would have used my heightened sense at art in observing all the elements I mentioned together with my personal take on the over all production including lighting, acoustics, scene transitions, and scoring, to name a few.
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Since Lauren and I both had the night set for Avenue Q which that same morning we knew would never happen, we decided to have dinner instead. We talked about stuff for hours. We were later treated to a great many helping of cover tracks played by The Bloomfields, live. The talented show boy band played a few meters in front of us while we continued talking about the healing period of industrial vs. helix, normal writing vs. exceptional poetry, dream jobs vs. those that pay the bills, garage vs. studio recordings, the general idea on the “Mafia” vs. reality, angel’s wings vs. something it would look like were it cut off, and several dozen other topics that randomly bled onto each other, as plucked from each of our unique personal interests and experiences.
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Avenue Q or not, I consider this to be one of the better dates I had in a long while. Again, thanks Lauren!
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[EDIT] By the way, my singing Sucks to be you and Schadenfreude turns out to be short-lived. We now have Orchestra Tickets to Avenue Q’s September 15 matinee. And this is the show to be at per TheBachelorGirl. Lots in store there. Watch out for live twits from the venue from me and Lauren. Add us via Twitter, people, and choose follow via SMS! Promise we won’t spam.