I'm not sure if you're familiar with this broadway show called Avenue Q but it's been on for agesssss and finally the franchise came down to Dunedin! I think it's the first time the show ever being performed here because I know it's been performed quite a couple times in Auckland and Wellington. I was mad excited when I saw their ad in campus so I didn't waste any time to get the tickets! To watch Avenue Q was one of the things I wanted to do before I turned 30 so that's one thing crossed off the list! I've been singing to the show's tunes ever since I got interested with cosplay (not that I cosplayed but I was really into it at one point) because people tend to sing Avenue Q songs at conventions.
The showing that I went to was on the last days of Ramadhan (man, I'm bad!) but it was on the first night of Spring break so me and Nings sort of planned a special iftar to celebrate both! Okay, it was more on my part because I was really really really excited! This is after all my first time going to a real musical and people really raved about the show. I was hoping to learn a few things from it...
We decided to iftar at this swanky restaurant in Dunedin called Bennu. Last time I wrote about it was the time I went for desserts because theirs are TO.DIE.FOR! We decided to go a bit flash that night because we're oh.so.sophisticated.
DINNER @ POSH RESTAURANT + THEATRE = SOPHISTICATION :p
Jie Ning and I have been spending a LOT of time together since the rest of Secret Club are away for the holidays. At one point, the night felt like a date...which was disturbing! Haha
Jie Ning in her natural element
My Chicken Quasadilla
Ning's Vegetarian Lasagne
Dinner finished quite early so we had some time to kill before the show...so we walked around town and eventually found ourselves having coffee and desserts at Tagente Cafe. It is next to Fortune Theatre after all...
One thing about Nings is that she's obsessed with anything Paris. One day she's going to have her dreams crushed when she finally get to Paris. I heard some pretty gruesome stories about Paris, especially about its cleanliness. For this picture, she coerced me into taking this shot of her with this plastic Eiffel tower on some shop.
I like the vibe in Tagente but the food is mediocre. In my opinion it's not even worth your money. The coffee and dessert was meh. Also, I only went there for its quirkiness and I find everything about it weird, even their opening times. They open real early everyday but close at 3pm. Fridays are the only time they close late and they have a band performance on Friday nights too. So we came on the right time...or so we thought la.
The chocolate fruit cake is nice coz it's not too sweet but it's too squishy and the fruits you can tell that it's not fresh. Love the chocolate but hmmn...it's just nothing extraordinary.
I find it so funny how the band took such a long time to set up but they only performed like 5 minutes. =-=;;
ON TO AVENUE Q!!
Look at what I found in my toilet cubicle! Haha!
I was surprised of how small Fortune Theatre is. Ridiculously small. I guess I just have to accept that everything in New Zealand is small compared to Malaysia. :) Not that I'm saying it's a bad thing but it's just different.
The only picture I could get coz I realized that you can't exactly take picures.
In my opinion, Dunedin's Avenue Q was a disappointment for me. Maybe because I had a high expectation from the rave reviews it got from my Theatre lecturers and Critic. I find that the cast failed to really bring the puppets alive (because Avenue Q is all about its puppets) and I felt the ventriloquies did more acting than the puppets themselves. I realized that they are not professional puppeteers but the director could have asked them to attend puppet seminars just like the Broadway cast. Also I notice some of the jokes are very american so it wasnt as funny for the Kiwi audience. The energy from the cast was lacking big time.
I know for a fact that Jie Ning didn't enjoy it at all...which was sad! I was really hoping that the show would prove her wrong! :D
Avenue Q by Dunedin Cast = 2/5
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