Mamma Mia! has just celebrated its 3rd birthday as a boffo Las Vegas attraction; but other attempts to bring a piece of Broadway to the casino strip haven’t been so successful. Avenue Q was the smart, underdog of a show that transferred from downtown to Broadway three years ago to win the Tony Award for Best Musical from right under the nose of what’s turned out to be a bigger hit, Wicked. And now the two shows are lining up to go head-to-head in London, too, with Wicked of course set for the Apollo Victoria in October, and Avenue Q just announced today as heading to the West End in June, where it will open at the Coward (the re-named Albery) on June 28, following previews from June 1.
But Cameron Mackintosh, the London producer for Avenue Q, must be looking anxiously at what’s just happened to the show in Las Vegas. While a sit-down production there was boldly trumpeted within days of its Tony win – and controversially, the deal struck with the new Wynn Hotel where it was the opening attraction was that it would be an exclusive there, foregoing the expected national tour – it has failed to draw the town there, at least in sufficient numbers, and the hotel’s proprietor Steve Wynn has decided to cut his losses now, close the show (by late May) and install Spamalot(also coincidentally arriving in London this autumn) in the purpose-built theatre instead.
So what happened to Avenue Q in Vegas? First there was the problem of establishing a niche for the show: “The trouble is how do you sell Avenue Q?”, Wynne wondered, in a place where audiences “turn over every week, so word of mouth takes longer to penetrate a market.” Moreover, the show failed to make a big splash in every sense: it was simply too small – though the show, said Wynn, “was very popular with the local population”, he added, “But spectacle is still a big factor here.”
Perhaps it was simply too smart for Vegas; but also, possibly, too New York. All of which could equally apply in London. Interestingly, Rent – another quintessentially New York musical – has mostly failed to recreate its success outside of Broadway. I’m a huge fan of Avenue Q, though, and hope that it can buck what might become a trend.
Cameron should take a leaf out of the original marketing plan for "Beyond The Fringe" all those years ago and open "Avenue Q" in Edinburgh in the summer and not straight into London's West End. This articulate, satirical and delightful take on modern morals with its gentle but not so gentle jibes at gays, pornography, relationships - all human life in fact needs just the young, modern-market teaser arena that only Edinburgh can give. A month on the Fringe at the Pleasance would do more for word of mouth than any early summer opening at the Albery no matter how cheap the tickets and leave the movers and shakers in the capital - too busy to make the trip north - gagging for it with an early autumn opening in town.