Avenue Q is mostly comedic, but it could wrench your heart.
- Surprisingly, the end of the first act can do this. With "Fantasies Come True", the Distant Duet based around Rod hearing his crush Nicky's affections for him ends with him realising it was All Just a Dream. The few seconds before Rod's heartbroken line "Good night, Nicky" is one of the only parts of the musical where the audience will be totally silent. The sadness lifts for Rod's Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? song, then dives straight back in for the last song of the act, "There's a Fine Fine Line", a ballad to Kate's realisation that she'd be better off if she broke up with Princeton.
- There's A Fine, Fine Line. Yes, right in the middle of a hilarious comedy is one of the saddest songs ever.
- And then the lights come up for intermission.
- Especially the lines:
I guess if someone doesn't love you back it isn't such a crime.
But there's a fine, fine line between love and a waste of your time.- The exchange between Princeton and Kate before the song isn’t much better.Princeton: Kate, I have something to say.
Kate: Princeton, you can tell me anything.
Princeton: Listen, when I moved here to Avenue Q, I was looking for my purpose.
Kate: I remember.
Princeton: And we’ve been spending so much time together and I lost track of finding it. I don’t wanna be an old man and realise I never found my purpose in life.
Kate: So, you’re saying you don’t wanna spend time with me?
Princeton: No, no, I love being with you.
Kate: Oh, good, because I thought you meant-
Princeton: But I don’t want a girlfriend before I find my mission in life.
Kate: But you said…
Princeton: If we stay together now, we’ll never be friends in the end.
Kate: I’m not looking for friends. I have plenty of friends.
Princeton: Well, don’t you like me?
Kate: Well, yes, I do. And that’s why I think you should get out of here.
Princeton: You mean I should leave?
Kate: Unless you have another definition for “get out of here”.
- "For Now", the finale of the show, heart-wrenching, despite a couple hilarious lines interspersed.Each time you smile
it'll only last a while - And then it ends with a sad, slow, lyrical reprise of the opening Avenue Q Theme, as if to say that, for everything that you'll try to do, in the end we all must resign to our ultimate fate and break our own spirits. *sob*
- It's bittersweet but... it's not meant to be doom and gloom. "Everything in life... is only for now." It means the good AND the bad are brief and it doesn't matter if you have a purpose or lived a good life: All that matters is that you LIVED. Even if the good moments are short, it means that the bad moments will pass too.
- I Wish I Could Go Back To College, in which about half the cast sings about how the time they'd spent at college was the best time of their lives...until real life hit them in the face and killed off their hopes and dreams. Doubly painful in that the idea of going back to the life they miss is rather brutally rejected by Nicky.Nicky: But, if
I were to go back to college
Think what a loser I'd be
I'd walk through the quad, and think, oh my god,
These kids are so much younger than me... - The scene where Rod comes out to Christmas Eve. It's one of the few scenes played completely serious as the puppet quietly breaks down in tears and confesses he feels completely alone.Christmas Eve: Rod, you special. Rod, you safe.
Rod: ...I miss Nicky.
Christmas Eve: I know you do. - In the reprise of "The Money Song", Trekkie, of all people, becomes a giant woobie.Trekkie: School for monsters...
School for lonely little monsters!
When me little, going to school
Other children think me not cool
Poking and pulling at me fur... - This line from Gary Coleman: "My greatest fear is that I already achieved my damn purpose in life, and now I'm just happy to walk out my front door with a little bit of self respect." Damn...
- An even grimmer alternative line had Gary lament that he's now "On a slow walk to the grave."
- The show's final Easter Bonnet Competition entry in 2019,
in which the actors and puppets sing and slow-dance to Semisonic's "Closing Time" and give their farewells before the closure of the off-Broadway run. It does have some comedic moments in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, but knowing the show is leaving Manhattan for good after so many years (especially those who have seen their previous entries in the BC/EFA competitions) is heartbreaking for any fan. - Original puppet designer Rick Lyon made this video on the last day of the Off-Broadway run, in which the puppets sing their goodbyes before being packed away for good. Unlike most Avenue Q videos, there's really no joke, it's just a very short, very bittersweet sendoff.
- Even sadder, the song they sing? "Saying Goodbye" from The Muppets Take Manhattan. Nicky is the character who sings the final verse (sung by Fozzie Bear in the original performance), and even sniffles briefly before he sings, "Wanna cry..."
