A few weeks ago, actually on Christmas Day itself, my girlfriend and I went into Manhattan, to Times Square, and waited in line for an hour in the cold [an experience which convinced us to forgo the traditional “freeze your ass off in Times Square on New Year’s Eve” nonsense 6 days later] to purchase tickets to this off-color, off-Broadway piece, which is an extremely naughty, hilarious and clever parody of Sesame Street. My first choice, Spamalot, has long been gone from Broadway, and I wasn’t keen on “Mama Mia” (ABBA) or any of the other alternatives.
One weird thing about this is, unlike Sesame Street, the puppeteers are actually visible onstage. But like zoning out on crowd noise and aural imperfections on bootlegs, you eventually reach the point of ignoring the puppeteers and focusing on the puppets themselves.
Like “South Park”, the show tackles various controversial issues in an irreverent and funny way. “It Sucks to Be Me”, “Everyone is a Little Bit Racist” (sung by a Gary Coleman impersonator), a song slamming the Internet as primarily about porn, sung by Trekkie Monster (3 guesses as to which Sesame Street character he parodies) and even a Bert-like gay character in heavy denial – but who is so obviously gay that coming out of the closet is a surprise to only himself (the Ernie character, above left, is actually straight). Finally, not to give it away, there is actually some wild puppet sex (fortunately the Bert character is not involved). It’s a little more targeted and sophisticated than “Crank Yankers”. Bottom line? Excellent adult parody of “Sesame Street”, for those who like “South Park” and can handle these issues. Leave the kids at home!
No comments:
Post a Comment