Avenue Q – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Leigh Lothian (centre) with Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut

Playing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London until 30 June.

Although it ran for five years in the West End followed by a national tour, Avenue Q‘s Off-Broadway roots always showed. In its first UK fringe theatre production, the smaller space and intimacy works in its definite favour.

The musical takes the idea of humans and puppets living alongside each other from children’s TV show Sesame Street, and transposes it into the very non-child friendly world of young, sexually-liberated adults. Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx’s songs, along with Jeff Whitty’s book, remain as profanely amusing as ever, while being solidly entertaining. It’s no surprise to see Lopez working with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on The Book of Mormon, which combines rude humour with heart in much the same way.

The puppet residents of the avenue are – one or two dodgy hairstyle changes notwithstanding – visually familiar to any fan of the show’s previous incarnations. With the original TV screen animations built into Suzi Lombardelli’s space-defying terraced house set, there’s a definite air of familiarity. But any show is only as good as the performers, and it’s the puppeteers who provide the excellence here. Josh Wilmott’s turns as both the pornography-obsessed Trekkie Monster and the well-meaning Nicky provide the lion’s share of laughs and audience engagement, in which he is ably assisted by Katie Bradley.

Every laugh, every punchline is delivered as a team of puppet and puppeteers working in unison. The production clearly benefits from having brought in actor Simon Lipkin – who originated Trekkie and Nicky in the West End production – as associate director. Having the puppets perform up close and at the audience’s eye level helps as well, further underlining why Avenue Q suits this venue so well.

As the romantic leads, Will Jennings and Leigh Lothian lend an air of endearing believability while also each performing additional roles with aplomb. Lothian in particular has to juggle several scenes where both her puppets, Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, have to interact, and she carries off the vocal challenge with some considerable charm.

In contrast, it is the human characters that feel less crafted in this version. Tim Frost and Shin-Fei Chen struggle to engage our affections, and while this production reverts to the New York tradition of casting a female in the role of Gary Coleman, Cassandra Lee’s vocals sometimes struggle to be heard in the mix alongside her cast mates and the (occasionally over-amplified) band.

But such faults are slight in a production as warm and engaging as this (directed by John Plews). Having a musical which is so visually stylistically similar in each production – from Off-Broadway, to Broadway, West End, tour and now on the Fringe – could have resulted in a show which felt out of place and disconnected. Instead, Avenue Q seems perfectly at home in London N6.

 Scott Matthewman