Posted on: Friday, June 11, 2004

Tony winner delighted silly campaign worked

By Michael Kuchwara
Associated Press

Could the unexpected Tony Awards victory of "Avenue Q," which actively wooed voters, mean more creative politicking for Broadway's highest honors next year?

The youthful musical featuring puppets and X-rated humor upset the lavish "Wicked" at Sunday's Radio City Music Hall ceremony, taking awards not only for best musical but also best book and score.

Jeffrey Seller, one of the ecstatic producers of "Avenue Q," skillfully managed to keep its frisky face in front of the public.

That's not politicking, said Barry Weissler, producer of "Chicago" and "Wonderful Town"; it's marketing.

"You try to make the public and the Tony voters aware of your show — that's common sense. You want them to think of you as they are putting their ballots together, so you will do certain advertising."

It's just never been so overt.

"Avenue Q," a tuneful tale of youthful New Yorkers, mounted a cheeky, satiric effort for the best-musical prize. It draped its theater in red-white-and-blue bunting, handed out buttons that proclaimed, "Don't suck. Vote Q" — a play on one of the show's popular tunes, "It Sucks to Be Me" — and even sent up its own persistent Tony campaign in newspaper ads.

"Ultimately," Seller said, "our real goal was to raise the visibility of the show — to sell more tickets, regardless of winning or losing Tonys."