. . . not to mention Gary Coleman’s life: Anyone who’s seen Avenue Q knows that one of the show’s running gags is that the superintendent of the less-than-ideal apartment building on the street is, supposedly, a down-on-his-luck-but-still-smiling Gary Coleman — reduced to custodial status after his TV career as a child star on Diff’rent Strokes went nowhere. On the national tour currently at the Winspear, he’s played by Nigel Jamaal Clark (critics Lawson Taitte, Mark Lowry and I agree — it’s funnier when the role is played by a woman, as it was originally).

But on Wednesday, the real Gary Coleman, 47, fell in his Utah home and was taken to a hospital. He was described as conscious and lucid. But yesterday things went bad and this morning, he was put on life support after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

UPDATE: Gary Coleman has died.