Age: 67
The Jim Henson Company (formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. | commonly referred to as Henson) is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of the Muppets characters. Brian Henson serves as chairman, while Lisa Henson serves as CEO. Since 2000, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered at the Jim Henson Company Lot, the historic former Charlie Chaplin Studios, in Hollywood. The company was established in 1958 by puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson and is currently independently owned and operated by their children. Henson has produced much successful television series, including The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and Bear in the Big Blue House; as well, the company designed the Muppet characters for the long-running Sesame Street. The company has also produced theatrical films, including The Muppet Movie (1979), The Dark Crystal (1982), and Labyrinth (1986). Henson also operates Jim Henson's Creature Shop, an animatronics and visual effects studio which has created characters and effects for both Henson productions and outside projects.[3] In 1989, the company entered merger negotiations with The Walt Disney Company, which were canceled following Jim Henson's death in 1990. Subsequently, control of the company was assumed by Henson's children: Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John, and Heather. In 2000, Henson was sold to the German media company EM.TV & Merchandising AG; by the end of that year, however, EM.TV's stock collapsed, and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003. In the interim, EM.TV sold the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets to Sesame Workshop in 2001, following a December 2000 announcement. In 2004, Henson sold The Muppets, and the associated trademarks, as well as the series, Bear in the Big Blue House, to Disney, but retains the remainder of the other characters, program library, and assets. As of 2021, Brian, Lisa, Cheryl, and Heather Henson maintain control of the company. Jane Henson died in April 2013, and John Henson died in February 2014.
Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody of Sesame Street, but its content involves adult-oriented themes. It has been praised for its approach to themes of racism, homosexuality and internet pornography. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at the Vineyard Theatre, co-produced by the Vineyard Theatre and The New Group. In July of that same year, the show moved to the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, where it ran until 2009, playing for over 2,500 performances. It transferred to the off-Broadway New World Stages within weeks of ending its Broadway run, where it played until 2019; together, the two productions played 6,569 performances. Major productions have been staged in Las Vegas and the West End, and the musical has been staged and toured in several countries around the world. A school-friendly script has been produced. The principal cast includes four puppeteers and three human actors. The puppet characters, Princeton, Kate, Nicky, and others, are played by the unconcealed puppeteers as the costumed human actors interact with the puppets.
