Avenue Q

Company: Arts Asia Pacific in association with Power Arts and QPAC
Venue: Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane
Dates: To 28 March 2010

 

Puppets... not muppets

There’s a little bit of magic in this show. I sat all the way through with a silly smile on my face when I wasn’t laughing out loud.

It’s not a show for kiddies, that’s for sure and it’s not a show for adults either – not those who’ve grown up and lost the inner child anyway, but the happily immature rest will have a ball. The show is like a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movie, where everyone is good at heart – even the bad guys - and everyone lives happily ever after conquering all obstacles thrown at them. It leaves you with the feeling that all is right with the world and the memory of a happy night in the theatre.

It’s done in the style of the Muppets with character driven puppets worked by visible and talented actors, but it’s a lot more grown-up. I use the term deliberately because those puppets are not exactly adults, more naughty adolescents who get up to all sorts of tricks – including the funniest sex scene I’ve ever seen. I mean, puppet sex, is a new twist and just has to be seen to believed. And it is all done with such a light heart it could never be offensive. I guess puppets can get away with things humans never could (take a trip down memory lane with Chuck Wood). The Python team would have loved them. After all it’s a boy show, a rarity in stage musicals, with its rude jokes, cheeky sexuality and occasional bursts of bad language.

The plot tells of the lives of the Avenue Q residents who live a rundown tenement area of New York that is run by a character called Gary Coleman, the former child TV star, who is played by Cherine Peck as a live character. We get all the Coleman jokes, and they are all funny.

A young college graduate, Princeton, comes to New York City with dreams of fame and fortune, but the only place he can afford to live is Avenue Q. But the neighbours are nice. Brian is a would-be stand- up comedian who has created a great joke – if only he could come up with a punch line. He is engaged to a Japanese Therapist, Christmas Eve who is still waiting for a paid job. These are both human characters played by David James and Christina O’Neill who both have a lot of fun in their roles.

Then there’s the untidy, feckless Nicky whose roommate Rod is as opposite a character you could imagine. There’s also an internet porn addict called Trekkie Monster (shades of the Cookie Monster) and a cute kindergarten teaching assistant named Kate Monster whose dream in life is to build a special school for the put-upon monster population. Then there is nightclub singer and swinger Lucy the Slut (think a downsized Miss Piggy), Mrs. Thistletwat is the kindergarten principal, who thinks that calling her by her first name diminishes respect for her! Finally we have what must have once been Carebears but they have morphed into the mischievous and extremely naughty Bad Idea Bears. They are marvellous creations. I loved the wicked little things.

All the characters live and puppets, sing, and animated video clips are played as part of the story, which are also funny in their own right.

So among all these characters there are stories of ambition, lack of ambition, unrequited love, true love, gay love, the homeless and the jobless and the search for a “purpose” in life – and each topic is tackled with the same outrageous humour.

All the songs, backed by a live band, are great lyrically and musically and every word of every song could be heard – and they needed to be to be appreciated. The opening song My Life Sucks and Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist, sung by all and Nicky’s hilarious If You Were Gay were the standouts for me.

It's top marks for the puppet masters who spoke all the lines and sang all the songs. Natalie Alexopoulos was marvelous has the gentle Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut – and what a great singing voice she has. Mitchell Butel was spot on with delivery of Princeton and Rod and Luke Joslin brought Nicky and the Trekkie Monster, the tough guy with a heart of gold cleverly to life. Josie Lane had fun with the bitchy Mrs. Thistletwat and one of the Bad Idea Bears while Frank Hansen and Gus Murray shared the other Bad Idea Bear .

Eric Scott

To read more of Eric Scott's theatre reviews, check out Absolute Theatre.