Kate Monster Speaks

College friend and "Avenue Q" star Steph D'Abruzzo gets yet another nice write-up, this time in the New York Times.

Steph was nominated for a Tony in 2004, and recently discovered that she was the only actor nominee from last year (out of 40) still working the job for which they were nominated. Some highlights:

Ms. D'Abruzzo, who was beaten out for best actress in a musical by that relative short-timer Idina Menzel of "Wicked," spoke with Robert Simonson about keeping it fresh after more than 800 shows.

Have you ever played around with certain lines, changed them from show to show?

We are not allowed to. I remember the night after the 2003 blackout, I desperately, for one night, wanted to change the line "George Bush is only for now" to "Con Ed is only for now." We were given the nay-say on that.

How many Kate Monster puppets have you gone through?

Actually, right now we're getting an influx of new puppets. Our old puppets will be backup for the Las Vegas production. We have brand new reformed Lucy, who shows up at the end of the show. She looks totally different. She has no eyelids, has big wide open eyes and big pigtails. The first time I saw her, I thought she looked like Suzanne Somers in "Three's Company." I think her boobs are bigger.