The Las Vegas production of Avenue Q will play its last performance at the Wynn Hotel's Broadway Theatre on May 28th.
The hotel's owner
Steve Wynn cited the closing as being due to real estate factors; 20 acres will be added on to the Wynn and the Broadway Theatre, which was custom-built to house
Avenue Q, would also conveniently work for the upcoming Las Vegas production of
Spamalot. "As we finalized our architectural plans for Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, we realized that if we could convert the
Broadway Theatre currently housing
Avenue Q to the Grail Theatre for
Monty Python's Spamalot,
we would be able to most efficiently accommodate those new elements and
meet the demands of our hotel addition," he said in a statement.
With the Las Vegas closing of
Avenue Q, too, the musical will be able to tour. "By releasing the producers of
Avenue Q
from their exclusive non-touring agreement, we were able to accomplish
this architectural goal without having to invade our golf course real
estate. Giving up the delights of
Avenue Q was a very difficult, but
necessary choice in view of all of the relevant factors."
The decision to close
Avenue Q in Vegas comes at the heels of Wynn's decision to cut two song and trim the musical down to 90 minutes. The show, which is performed by two casts and plays 10 performances a week,
blends puppets and people
in a sweetly R-rated tale of love, sex, friendship and the search for
purpose. Avenue Q, which continues to be a hit on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre and which will soon open in London, is directed by Jason Moore, and features a Tony Award-winning book by Jeff Whitty and a Tony Award-winning book by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx.At its closing, Avenue Q will have run for 9 months in Las Vegas; it began previews on August 27th and opened on September 8th.The Wynn Las Vegas is located at 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
For tickets to the Las Vegas production, visit the following link. For more information, visit www.avenueq.com.
