Confession:  Despite the unique opportunity of being able to attend their rehearsal and mingle with the cast (LINK), and despite my great desire to do so, I did not think that I could watch Avenue Q again this time around, despite being their farewell run. 

It was already the final week.  I was able to convince some of my colleagues to go watch it.  They all turned in rave reviews, as I expected (although they conspired to let me think otherwise at first, hehe).  Unfortunately, I personally had no opportunity this time to watch it this time. 

Time dwindled right until Saturday night, when suddenly the bright idea came up of bringing Eric and Vangie (my wife's brother and sister who are visiting from the States) to go watch it.  Stoked and hopeful, I called Mae of Atlantis.  She said she had only three tickets left for the final show on June 22, 8pm.  Yes!  Exactly what I needed.  However, the seats were scattered all over the theater. Hmmm.... what the heck, I went for broke and reserved them.  But Mae's condition was that I had to pick them up in the morning before 12 noon. 

We all know what happened on the morning of June 22, Supertyphoon "Frank" hit very close to Metro Manila.  I texted Mae, and yikes, the Atlantis office was open despite the storm!  So yes, I braved the continuous torrential rains, and strong winds, and floods and EDSA from Caloocan to reach Makati before the deadline, in order to buy those precious last tickets.  These were 2 loge and 1 side orchestra tickets, all separate from each other.

Now you ask me, was all of that worth it?  The answer is a definite YES!!!!!

The Farewell Run of Avenue Q was very much the same show I saw and enjoyed last December.  Since I had seen it before, this time I was able to concentrate more on the wit, the dialogs, the lyrics, the facial expressions, the subtle gestures -- all those funny little details that escaped my notice the first time. 

The cast was as fantastic as ever.  Felix Rivera was still the same idealistic Princeton and the same tormented Rob, I daresay improved.  Joel Trinidad was so effortless both as the mischeivous Nicky and the controversial Trekkie Monster.  The vocal and action nuances of the characters were very well distinguished, and captured with so much confidence and verve by both actors.  Of course, Frenchie, Aiza and Rycharde were consistently excellent in their performances of their respective human characters.

Now the inevitable comparison of the cast newcomer Carla Guevara with the actress she replaced, Rachel Alejandro.  As much I did not want to believe it, the performances were amazingly equal. There had been a consistent portrayal of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, inasmuch that you would think the same actress portrayed these puppets in both the December and the present run.  I guess I could credit that with the Directors' vision and guidance and the talent of the performers. 

In whatever slight degree though, I must say, however, that Carla has the saucy edge in playing Lucy.  Rachel, on the other hand, had the sweet edge in playing Kate.  While Carla's delivery of "Special" was certainly extraordinary, Rachel's version of "There's a Fine Fine Line" still remains to be my overall favorite Avenue Q song performance ever (it had not been called "exquisite" for nothing).

While the December show ended with the cast singing "Give Love on Christmas Day," this farewell run show appropriately ended with a farewell song--the closing theme of the old Donny and Marie TV show that goes "May tomorrow be a perfect day may you find love and laughter along the way..."  And they sang it beautifully, all their voices ringing very true and sincere. 

This 8pm show on June 22, 2008 that I watched WAS the final show of the Farewell Run.  I am very happy that I got to watch it, just in the nick of time.  All the difficulty I encountered in getting these tickets were immediately forgotten, and the fortuitous luck of getting the last seats in the house that night was definitely much appreciated.