The original London cast of Avenue Q.
The huge Broadway hit Avenue Q is also a huge hit in London. Avenue Q is easily the most high-profile play we've seen so far. Only Les Miz will top it in prestige during the class's finale.
Let's rate it on a sale of 1 to 5 Hugh Laurie's. Cool, House is British! That's right.
FOUR AND A HALF HUGH LAURIE'S OUT OF FIVE
"Avenue Q"
Directed by Jason Moore
Noel Coward Theatre
2 hours / Runs until April 25, 2009
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"Avenue Q"
By Matt Levin
As the orange-hued Princeton slides down a a row of doo-wopping boxes and soars into the air, it becomes quite obvious. Puppets make everything better.
I had heard the Avenue Q soundtrack before could never get into it. But seeing it all in context - with elaborate puppetry and ingenious props, it's impossible to not appreciate the complexity and cleverness of the performance. Add in a witty script that get its humor by towing the line of good taste and Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez's "Avenue Q" is one of the most unique musical hits I've ever seen.
The Noel Coward Theatre stage looks like something out of an episode from Sesame Street. Pastel colors and flamboyant set pieces remind viewers of the kid shows they watched back in the day. However, the theatre has signs outside intended to remind you this is an "adult" puppet show. And not even every adult might enjoy seeing puppet sex in their theatre. That's where the plays humor comes from: taking kiddie things and nostalgia and making them adult. It coincides with the theme those on Avenue Q are realizing: the "real world's" not as simple and wonderful as it might seem on television. These themes are explored through issues like commitment, homosexuality (thanks to two Ernie and Bert-like puppets) and finding meaning in a drab life.
The play stars puppets alongside three human characters, who all live in an apartment on Avenue Q - run by former child star Gary Coleman.* All our trying to find their "purpose" and escape their dilipidated home. This is displayed through amazing music sequences featuring the best damn puppet choreography anyone could imagine. It'll leave you wondering how 'How did they think of this stuff?" The puppeteers are mind-blowingly good at everything they do on stage. When their puppets "speak," the actors' faces express the emotions that puppets often have trouble showing. Some puppets required two actors and each actor would move and emote flawlessly in-sync.
The singing was also phenomenal. Rebecca Lock as the lead female puppet, Kate Monster, and Daniel Boys as the lead male puppet, Princeton, both showed off fantastic voices. The songs are often hilarious or oddly affecting. The song "I Wish I Could Go Back To College" does th e best job of bringing out the bittersweet by juxtapositing the"real life" on Avenue Q and the pretend life that precedes it is. While "The Internet is for Porn" is one of the funniest numbers you'll see on stage.
Not every song from the soundtrack won me over in the performance. "Everybody is a little bit racist" sends an idiotic and muddled message. The plot is weak, too. Ten minutes into the performance, it's apparent how the play will end. So it's up to the script and the actors to keep the play entertaining up until that final anti-climax.
That's no problem. When a play has characters like the buxom "Lucy the Slut" and wit to match the raunchiness, it'll leave you laughing and never able to look at Sesame Street the same way again.*
Lucy the Slut. In case you couldn't tell.
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Foot notes:
*I thought it was strange Coleman was kept in the British version. I doubt most British understand what he's talking about when he's asking whatcha talking about, Willis? Apparently, when the play first came to London, he was taken out and replaced by Gary - the "former child tv star." For Americans, it was probably strange just to see a Gary Coleman that was taller than the entire cast.
*Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, my reviews are too long. Why can't I write short?
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