The cast of Avenue Q at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch and Touring. Picture: Matt Martin Photography
Avenue Q continues at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch until 6 February, and on tour until 18 June 2016.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
If you’re like me, there’s a good chance that you grew up watching The Muppets and Sesame Street, along with Disney movies, where the stories would always seem to promise that, whatever happened, everything would turn out okay in the end. Avenue Q (conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx) is a modern day coming-of-age parable which takes a second look at this idea, focusing on the fact that life doesn’t often live up to these ideals.
When a show boasts tongue-in-cheek, standout songs like ‘The Internet is for Porn’ and ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’, it doesn’t take long to get the message that this is no ordinary musical. With regular references to adult themes, this is definitely a production that is “not suitable for little monsters” or those who are easily offended. But the show does have plenty to appeal to everyone else and had me laughing uncontrollably throughout. Perhaps some of the risqué lines felt a little more innocent coming from the sweet faces of the puppets.
Those who have already seen the musical will know that the actors appear clearly alongside the puppets onstage while they move and voice the characters. You might think that this would be hugely distracting, but the puppets are given so much life by the performers that you often forget they are there.
The skill of the puppeteers is particularly clear when they are dealing with multiple characters at the same time, and that’s before mentioning what wonderful singing voices they have. I especially enjoyed the work of Stephen Arden who provides the voices for Nicky/Trekkie Monster and Bad Idea Bear and Sarah Harlington who brings Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut to life.
Richard Evans’ design is very simple, with very few props, and foldout sets are used to symbolise the different characters’ flats. There are also animated pieces, imitating the intermission cartoons often seen in Sesame Street, which are displayed on screens above the stage. My only criticism would be that the screens are rather small for a stage as big as the one at the Queen’s Theatre, and although the cartoons are short they could often be hard to see.
I highly recommend going to see this Sell a Door Theatre Company production directed by Cressida Carré. It’s a fantastic evening’s entertainment and will have me laughing to myself for weeks to come.
Andy Wilkin
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