Reviews Sheffield Published 31 March 2011

Avenue Q

Lyceum Theatre Sheffield ⋄ 29th March - 2nd April, 2011 (and touring)

The dirty-sock puppets tour the regions.

John Murphy

Hard to know what Bigbird would've made of it all. Photo: Brinkhoff Moêgenburg.

From its humble beginnings in Connecticut, Avenue Q has gone from off-Broadway buzz to fully fledged phenomenon. After a successful 5 year run in London, the show is now on the road, giving regional audiences the chance to experience the famously potty mouthed puppetry.

For anyone who’s been living under a rock for the last decade, Avenue Q is best described as Sesame Street with added swearing, politically incorrect humour and, um, puppet sex. Instead of being concerned with spelling and grammar, these puppets have more adult worries: whether their lives have a purpose, coming to terms with their sexuality, and the amount of pornography on the internet.

Set in a fictional rundown New York neighbourhood, Avenue Q is a world where puppets and humans interact – Princeton, a recent graduate arrives and falls in love with Kate Monster while getting to know his neighbours: a closeted gay puppet and his roommate, a struggling stand-up comedian and his Japanese fiancee, Trekkie Monster, who spends most of his time in his room masturbating to pornography, and former child star Gary Coleman of TV’s Diff’rent Strokes, now reduced to the job of Building Superintendent.

You’ve probably guessed by now that a suspension of disbelief is required for Avenue Q. It is, at times, ludicrously silly but can also be remarkably touching. Towards the end there’s even the danger of a slide into sentimentality, although with songs like Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist and another celebrating the joys of Schadenfreude, any soppiness is kept firmly on the backseat.

At its heart, Avenue Q is a traditional feel-good Broadway musical. There’s nothing particularly subversive or edgy here, despite appearances – familiar themes are explored, the songs are catchy and fun, and there’s an uplifting ending to leave everyone feeling warm inside. What makes this production unmissable though is the puppetry: a quite brilliant technical accomplishment which, despite the fact that the puppet operators are on stage in full view of the audience, really brings the characters to life.

The salty humour helps as well – the infamous The Internet Is For Porn (“Grab your dick, and double click – for porn!”) is performed with gusto, and character names like Mrs Thistletwat draw healthy, if predictable guffaws. Also, puppet-on-puppet sex can never fail to be funny, and the biggest laugh of the evening here is generated by Princeton and Kate’s coupling, accompanied to the sounds of You Can Be Loud As The Hell You Like (When You’re Making Love).

The actors/puppeteers do a brilliant job of bringing this world to life, with several cast members performing multiple roles. Rachel Jerram does a particularly good job with the dual roles of monster-next-door Kate and her romantic rival Lucy The Slut, while Adam Pettigrew confidently plays both Princeton and Rod, the closeted gay Republican investment banker struggling with his unrequited feelings towards his roommate.

There’s also much fun to be had spotting the parallels to other famous puppet shows – there’s more than a hint of Miss Piggy to Lucy The Slut, while Trekkie Monster is Cookie Monster in all but name, albeit with a socially crippling addiction to pornography rather than foodstuffs. Indeed, it comes as no surprise to learn that Jeff Marx, the co-creator of Avenue Q, spent some of his early career working on Sesame Street.

All while it won’t quite enjoy the longevity of the famous TV show, even after nearly 10 years, Avenue Q remains an enormously fun experience.

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John Murphy

John is the former editor of, and current contributor to, musicOMH. He lives in Sheffield, in the shadow of the famous Crucible and Lyceum theatres, and also reviews in nearby Leeds and Manchester. John is also a huge fan of stand-up comedy, and can be often be found in one of Sheffield's comedy clubs, laughing like a madman.

Avenue Q Show Info


Directed by Jason Moore

Cast includes Matthew J Henry, Rachel Jerram, Edward Judge, Adam Pettigrew, Katherine Moraz, Chris Thatcher, Jacqueline Tate.

Link http://www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk/#/tour_schedule/tour_schedule/

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