Avenue X
Music by Ray Leslee Book & lyrics by John Jiler
PRESS
“Avenue X is what musicals are all about! Panoramic, rich, a musical feast. Bursting with the kind of talent, wit and energy that separates the living theatre from entertainment that comes in a can.” - Vincent Canby, New York Times
“We are transported as cast members sing their hearts, throats and guts out” – John Simon, NY Magazine
“Avenue X” will thrill. The cast is ‘poifect’. I had a great time!” – Clive Barnes, New York Post
“Ave X marks the spot for originality. There is a vitality about this show, a real freshness.”
- Martin Gottfried, New York Law Journal
"Simply a marvel...infectiously melodic and...joyous, staggering and genuinely witty...encompassing a truly staggering range of musical styles." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Lush, booming, soaring. A musical for people who don’t like musicals” – Los Angeles Weekly
“A doo-wop opera? A musical tragedy ? An a cappella drama ? “Avenue X” is not only a new and thrilling kind of show. Ray Leslee and John Jiler have created a show that is witty and moving and packs some political punch. – City Paper Philadelphia
“Avenue X sings in near-perfect harmony in its staging at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park -- but it is the book that is this show's true strength. Avenue X is driven by its dialogue. The book is gritty, moving, at times funny, and authentic.” – Cincinnati Post
“Avenue X” is a musical theatre experience like no other. The music and the plot will move you, not for their originality or depth, but for the ingenious way in which they are both so totally connected. And as for all of the snooty enemies of musical theatre: I strongly suggest broadening your mind, and this is a great place to start.” – Michigan Daily
"To hell with Johann Strauss: Avenue X is the show to see in Vienna this holiday season." -- Financial Times (Vienna, Austria)
"Ray Leslee's score features dense, complex harmonics and modulations, showing influences of classical and Eastern European choral music mixed with traditional Italian folk tunes, gospel and R&B. The blending of Pasquale and Milton in a falsetto one-upmanship would be the envy of any purveyor of bel canto, and the elegiac wail of grief that opens and closes the work is haunting in its stark power." -- Opera News
"Avenue X is a triumph of musical theater, an a cappella celebration and more... Every performer shines, the script invites reflections and the intelligent, challenging and melodic score still has me humming the tunes days after seeing the show." - Philadelphia Weekly
“Exuberant! The songs and singers soar. A trip to “Avenue X” is a necessity” – Associated Press
“Lustrous and exultant” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Bracingly pure. The thrill goes right up the back of your neck” – Dallas Morning News
”Razor-sharp, feverish, soul-stirring” – Texas Triangle
“Gritty, poignant, an exhilarating re-invention of doo-wop” - Seattle Post Intelligencer
Playwrights Horizons original cast:
Colette Hawley, Keith Johnston, Chuck Cooper, Roger Mazeo, Harold Perrineau, John Leone, Ted Brunetti, Alvaleta Guess
Off-Broadway 2007
Keifer Sutherland & Megan McGettigan
Off-Broadway 2007
Jeffrey Thompson, J.D. Mollison, Cheryl Alexander