Maurice Tipo -- a
blue puppet with button eyes and a green clown nose -- lived the dream
of puppets everywhere on March 10th by making his Broadway debut in the Tony
Award-winning musical Avenue Q at the John Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street).
Maurice Tipo, and his creator Andrew MacDonald Smith,
22 years old of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, were chosen as the
top vote-getters in Avenue Q's
nationwide puppet contest, "One Night Stand," which gave one worthy
puppet the chance to make his or her Broadway debut in Avenue Q. "One Night Stand" began in November, 2005; the contest invited participants to enter a puppet they thought would best fit
into the Avenue Qcommunity for one night only. Hundreds of entries were
received, and the field was eventually narrowed to 3 top winners.The
public voted online for their favorite of the top three
winners: Messrs. Tipo and Macdonald Smith, Theresa Cullen and her puppet
Kitty from Glendale, California, and Joe Kovacs and his puppet Miss Greta Green
from New York City. The results of the public vote determined which of the three would make their Broadway debut. The
top three winners each received a free trip to New York (airfare, hotel,
dinner), including the chance to see Avenue Q on Broadway and meet the cast back
stage after the show, which they did as a group on March 9, 2006.