Avenue Q in Las Vegas

I’m going to stop writing about poker for a while until it’s nicer to me! After a big win early in our stay I have been slowly bleeding at the tables.

Dinner Wednesday night was at Cravings, he buffet at Mirage. It’s an amazing buffet, though that doesn’t leave it alone. There are lots of very good buffets here.

We are pleased at how easy it’s been to sit all of us when we came as 8.

Helaine had arranged to buy tickets for Avenue Q. That’s the Off-Broadway show that became a Broadway Show and now, instead of touring nationally, set up shop at Wynn Las Vegas.

Actually, the Playbill says the first performance was in Waterford, CT. Go figure?

I consider myself knowledgeable about Broadway, but here’s how foolish I was. Until we went to see this show, I had no idea it was lampooning Jim Henson’s Muppets and Sesame Street!

In fact, the Playbill specifically says, “”Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved in any manner by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content.” So there!

The show is performed by puppets. The puppeteers are on stage, in sight, operating the puppets and providing their speaking and singing voices.

It was really very good and quite enjoyable.

The Wynn Las Vegas version has two companies, so they can perform every day. I’ll call them the A and B casts (only because there is one name, followed by the alternate, for each character). We saw the B cast. They were very talented.

I especially enjoyed Kelli Sawyer (I met her college roommate’s mother during intermission), playing most of the female principals, and David Benoit who played a bunch of characters including Nicky and Trekkie Monster.

Avenue Q is about coping as a young adult as Sesame Street is about fitting in as a kid. And, Avenue Q has taken great liberties to appropriate the Sesame Street style to make their points.

We were surprised, the theater was half full – if that. Granted it was a late show midweek. Still, this is supposed to be a hot ticket show.

All of this was going on at Wynn Las Vegas. Steve Wynn built this hotel, the Mirage, along with Treasure Island and Bellagio. Wynn Las Vegas is supposed to be one step up from that, but it is reminiscent of Bellagio in nearly every way.

Make no mistake, it’s an upscale, stunningly beautiful hotel. As it stands now, it’s too far down the Strip – well past the other nicer hotels. Las Vegas will surely grow nicer down there.