From Sesame Street to Avenue Q

With Danny Tanner’s paternal wisdom on Nick at Nite, Zach Morris’s Bueller-esque schemes on TBS, and a host of DVD box sets to fill in the gaps, channeling our 8-year-old selves is now easier than ever before. And while catching up with these iconic characters offers a security blanket for the college-bound, if you’re anything like Broadway actress and expert puppeteer Stephanie D’Abruzzo, you’ll learn a thing or two by taking a stroll down memory lane.

“When you’re in college you rediscover things from your youth, and you’re able to look at them with a new and different perspective,” said D’Abruzzo in a recent interview with Spectator. “We did that with Sesame Street, Bugs Bunny cartoons, Schoolhouse Rock, and a lot of things that we grew up with. We were rediscovering them at that second level of comedy that we could better appreciate now that we were older.”

As the film major spent her free moments watching Big Bird and Elmo with her classmates, she had no idea that her future career choice would land her a lead role in the Tony award winning musical, Avenue Q. During her four-year tenure at Northwestern University, D’Abruzzo began to harbor a love for puppetry and the opportunities the art form was able to offer.

“When I started watching these shows, it was character acting that appealed to me more than just about anything,” explained D’Abruzzo. “I thought, what a great opportunity to be able to play such a wide myriad of characters, and not be limited by your appearance, to be able to play any age, race, gender, or species.”

Along with doubling as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the original cast of Avenue Q, D’Abruzzo is perhaps best known for her recurring role as the friendly neighborhood critters that inhabit Sesame Street. The 39th season of Sesame Street, which begins production this winter, will mark D’Abruzzo’s 15th anniversary with the show. The difference between these two gigs, D’Abruzzo explains, is inherent in the line that separates theatrical puppetry from television puppetry. Contrary to popular belief, her transition from eating goodies with Cookie Monster to hanging with the raciest muppets in town was a relatively seamless switch.

“They really aren’t different. I think that’s a pretty prevalent misconception that people have about Avenue Q versus Sesame Street or any other show, children’s or otherwise,” said D’Abruzzo. “At the heart of a character, you need to have a character who has a heart—someone that you can believe in and follow. And whether that person is swearing or talking about the alphabet, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it would be a leap from doing something that was very syrupy, and little kiddy, and yippidy, dippidy, skippidy, but that’s not my idea of what good children’s entertainment is anyway. So, for me, it was virtually no change,” she said. “And what works in a show like Avenue Q—when you have someone very sweet who says awful things, who curses—that juxtaposition can be found long before Avenue Q.”
This idea of juxtaposition within a character drew D’Abruzzo to Scrubs, first as a fan, and then as a guest star. It’s the gray areas that interest her most.

“Many of us carry traces of a little bit of everything as we go around everyday life,” D’Abruzzo explained. “What I love about Scrubs as a show, is that it goes from very wild, broad comedy to very thought-provoking drama on a dime, often because it’s a hospital and because it’s where you have those situations occur.”

Last year, D’Abruzzo signed on to appear in the Scrubs episode “My Musical” as a patient who hears everyone speak in song. Avenue Q writers Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez provided music and lyrics for the episode, which aired in January. D’Abruzzo describes the experience as one of the best in her professional career, and only wishes that she could have spent more time on the set.

Upon her return to Manhattan, she explored the New York festival circuit, appearing in Kiss and Makeup as part of the New York International Fringe Festival and Austentatious, featured in the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The shows conducted rehearsals just as any off-Broadway or Broadway production would, D’Abruzzo explained, but time and funding were among the greatest limiting factors.

“These things are really down and dirty. It’s just their nature,” said D’Abruzzo in reference to the small crews and budget constraints of off-Broadway festivals. “Unfortunately, the goal winds up being to show as little of that as possible. ... There is a lot of pressure put on festivals to produce a show that’s ready for the next step instantly.”

D’Abruzzo remains amazed at the number of theatergoers with Broadway tunnel vision—those who think New York theater automatically equates to big lights, big money, and a poster in Shubert Alley.

“I haven’t seen a single television news person mention, ‘but there’s still off-Broadway’,” she said with regard to the press coverage surrounding the stagehand strike. Now that the 19-day lockout has come to a close, net grosses for Broadway box offices are once again soaring during the holiday season. “I guess that people like shiny things, and there aren’t as many shiny things off-Broadway. But with off-Broadway, you have shows that are like-quality, and you have a cheaper ticket price. That should be an easy sell to people.”

“Before Avenue Q came along, I never dreamed that I would have the chance to do Broadway because it was something I had long abandoned the dream of—it just did not seem that my path was heading in that direction,” said D’Abruzzo. “And suddenly Avenue Q came along, and for a while it was a diversion. For a while it was, hey, I wasn’t being paid, but it was fun to sing and dance on a stage again, even if it was to do a reading, or to do a workshop, or to do a BMI [Broadway Music Inc.] presentation. I never dreamed it would turn into what it turned into.”

Currently, the actress and puppeteer is open to exploring all facets of the entertainment industry. While she hopes to become more involved in television, D’Abruzzo is not opposed to finding work in venues outside the Big Apple, citing cities like Chicago, Seattle, and her hometown, Pittsburgh, among those she would like to explore. Recently she appeared in Broadway Sings the Phone Book, a benefit for the Make a Wish Foundation at Studio 54. And Elmo’s Christmas Countdown, which boasts guest appearances by the stars of The Sopranos, airs on ABC Dec. 23.

“The fact that I don’t know what’s next may not necessarily be a bad thing,” said D’Abruzzo. “In fact, it may lead to something I never imagined would happen.”