Despite a contest to find a new lyric for Avenue Q's closing song, "For Now," the creators of the Tony-winning musical have decided to keep the George Bush reference in the show.
The lyric, which originally stated, "George Bush is only for now" has been slightly revised to "George Bush was only for now," according to The New York Times.
A different lyric, "Prop 8 is only for now," will be used when the tour of the puppet-friendly music plays California.
When the departure of former President George W. Bush was imminent, the producers of Avenue Q launched a contest to replace the "For Now" lyric. Over 2,000 entries were received, and the judging panel — including Q creators Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty and the show's producers — selected four possibilities that were tested over several performances to "gauge the response and audience reaction, and determine which lyric emerges as the most satisfying," according to a previous press statement.
The contest lyrics tested follow:
"Recession"
"Prop 8"
"This show"
"Your mother-in-law"In a statement Avenue Q book writer Jeff Whitty explained that during testing four different "For Now" lyrics, "we discovered there is nothing like the strong response the Bush line gets from the audience."
Yeah. "Recession" strikes me as a bit of a downer actually. "Prop 8" is cute, although I'm sure lots in the audience won't get it.