Jeff Whitty

It’s been four years since Jeff Whitty won a Tony for writing the book to Avenue Q, the mischievous musical that mixes people and puppets (like an R-rated, “oh no they di-int!” Sesame Street), yet the first national tour just arrived in Chicago. In the meantime, between writing new plays, Whitty has dabbled in YouTube comedy (with the very clever, if overlong, “Meet the Casting Directors”) and gay activism (calling out Jay Leno’s homophobic remarks on his website, whitless.com).

Time Out Chicago: What’s new in your artistic life?
Jeff Whitty I’m working on Tales of the City, the musical based on Armistead Maupin’s books. We did the first-ever read-through a month ago. I’m doing it with [composers] Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters.

TOC: How’d you get the idea for “Meet the Casting Directors”?
Jeff Whitty Well, Chris Crocker, the kid who did that “Leave Britney Alone” video, released it on September 11th. It just seemed so perfect that this was the biggest issue facing him that day. I thought, God, it would be funny if we held auditions as if we were casting it.

TOC: What’s exciting you, politically or culturally, today?
Jeff Whitty Politics has replaced porn as my online obsession.… I used to love Hillary Clinton, I really did, but I’m surprised how tone-deaf she and Bill have been. She really lost me when she was making fun of Obama for speaking beautiful words. That’s half the president’s job, to inspire people.

Avenue Q runs through June 7.