By John Habich – Newsday
Like a ragtag army of automatons, puppets of every contraption are infiltrating the power centers of the entertainment world.
While the hand-puppet cynics of “Avenue Q” and the stick-puppet animals of “The Lion King” entertain sold-out houses on Broadway, the man-eating plant in “Little Shop of Horrors” is gobbling up box-office bucks on a new national tour. Meanwhile, the creators of TV’s “South Park” are preparing “Team America: World Police,” an action-adventure political satire starring marionettes, due in theaters Oct. 15.
