I had a thought. If you decide that the *you can be as loud as the hell you want when you are making love *sequence is ok for her, maybe you can not sit with her durring the show so as to minimize the embarrasment factor and up the enjoyment.
I wouldn’t be comfortable watching that scene with my mom now, and I have my own kid. I would have died at 13. Reminds me of when my mom and I went to the movies when I was 14 or so and walked into a movie by the director of a neat film we had just seen on video called Shallow Grave, but didn’t know anything else about it. **Trainspotting **turned out to be very uncomfortable to watch with my mom right there.
I had a similar experience going to see Dona Flor and her Two Husbands with my father. I wasn’t expecting such an explicit sex scene. And I was in grad school at the time.
He leaned over to me after the movie and said : “Your uncle (name withheld) was like that.”
I teach middle school drama, and I am pretty amazed at the fact that many of my kids will sing the songs to this show. It’s fairly adult (though comic, which somehow gets a pass on a lot of parents’ appropriate-o-meter), and there is nothing weirder than being in a room with a bunch of 11-13 year olds singing Schadenfreude, and then inevitably start singing The Internet is for Porn.
Only you know your kid, but my generic vote is “too young.”
I join the slight majority – it’d be OK for a typical 13 year old, but a parent would be horrified at the idea of his 13 year old being exposed to it. And probably the issues of being listless and overeducated in your 20’s wouldn’t make a lot of sense to someone that age. (The first or second song is, IIRC, “What Do You Do With a B.A. In English?”) But it is hilarious.
I don’t doubt that a 13-year-old can love the show and appreciate most of its humor (or even like it on a different level, not getting all the jokes – kind of like the actual Muppets or Sesame Street). But as others have mentioned, unless you two are remarkably open, expect her to (or you) to go a few shades of red over some of the content.
One thing I notice is that, while people are disagreeing on the content, nearly everyone ends their post with, “But it’s absolutely hilarious” or “the show is still awesome.” Which I wholeheartedly agree. It’s my second fav behind Les Mis.
I was initially skeptical, but now that I think about it, if it were my kid, I’d sit her down, explain it, say I wasn’t 100% sure the content was appropriate for her, or that she’d appreciate or understand the humor, but good theater is good theater and I wouldn’t want to deny her the experience.
Well yeah… nobody’s questioning the quality of the work. But that’s not the discussion here. The question is about the appropriateness of the work for a 13-year-old girl. If we were talking about Les Mis I’d say go for it, because it’s at least somewhat historical, and there are characters (Cosette and Eponine) she may be able to identify with. But in a show full of questions like “What do I do now that I’ve graduated college?”, “Should I sleep with that stripper even though I like this other girl?” and “What good is the internet if not for porn?”, it’s hard to see what she would get out of it.
She likes the music. Really – I think that’s the main interest. The risque nature of the work gives it an added kick, plus the fact that she’d be seeing something grown up. But the music is the hook. She and her friends socialize around their iPods.
My kids have grown up in and around the theatre, and we have been listening to Avenue Q’s cast album for years. My eight year old can sing the songs and it’s been a great opportunity to have some of those awkward discussions. Rent was one of those when we first let the older kids see it several years ago. We had a lot of discussions about drug/alcohol abuse, addiction, homelessness, AIDS, etc.
Last year my daughter, who as 14 at the time, went with me to Avenue Q when it came to town. Our season seats are third row center orchestra and up close you can really see the fur fly. She loved it. Of course she’s a very bright kid and we’ve done our best to NOT shelter her, including seeking out comprehensive sex ed classes for her through church and including her in a lot of more grown up activities like working crew for our local theatres.
So I think it’s a great idea. In fact if we had it to do all over again I’d take her to Spring Awakening and there’s real people nudity and very realistic simulations of real sex acts on stage in that one. Using it as a springboard for those conversations which normally don’t pop up in everyday life is highly recommended.
FWIW, I took my parents to see the touring production of Cabaret and I was embarrassed by some of the jokes. And I was in my 20s at the time.
You know MilliCal better than anyone, but my vote is for allowing her to see Avenue Q. It’s a great show and it’s so over-the-top that it won’t go over her head.
Not knowing what it was about my Mom took me to see Exit to Eden* when I was 13. Sure I was a bit embarrassed at the time, but its a great story know, and I think she was more embarrassed about it than I was. You know your kid, I say go for it.
*for those who don’t know, it’s a Rosie O’Donnell movie about S&M.
I’m sending you a bill for the brain bleach I had to go buy.
Cal, honestly, it sounds like you’ve got your mind made up already. So go for it. I’m sure it’ll be fine; she’ll laugh, you’ll laugh, you both might be uncomfortable during certain scenes but the overall tone of optimism will probably prevail. But, I mean, you know, you asked for opinions and we were just giving them to you and all that.
I also watched this movie at about that age with my mom. Or rather, we watched part of it, then she paused it and said “I’m going to watch the rest of this movie, and it’s fine with me if you watch the rest, but I think I’d be more comfortable if we didn’t watch it together.” I said “Sounds good, let me know when you’re done” and walked out of the room.
As for MilliCal seeing Ave. Q, I think that she’s still really too young to really get some of it. I’m referring, of course, to Gary Coleman. Is Gary still in it? I heard they were going to change at least some of it after he died.
Oh no, it’s definitely too raunchy and adult and disturbing. You should take her to see something more classic and old timey, like Spring Awakening.
(Seriously, I started reading Stephen King at 12. I watched Blazing Saddles for decades before I got some of the jokes. She’ll be fine. She’ll be a bit embarrassed at you being there while she watches gung-ho puppet sex, but overall it’ll be a good experience.)
