Avenue Q

There was so much to enjoy in this production with the very talented cast showing off their acting, singing and dancing skills as well as their mastery of the puppets. The show explores multiple themes including ‘finding your purpose’ in the modern world as well as the reality of unemployment, homelessness, racism and sexuality. Serious though the themes are, they were done with some hilarious interchanges between the characters.

 The puppeteers handled their puppets so professionally, that they felt like a natural extension of the actors themselves, and for the most part, I found myself watching the puppets rather than their handlers.  Likewise, the ‘human’ non-puppeteers interacted so well with that the puppets that I almost forgot that they weren’t living breathing beings. The timing of the actors’ speech was perfectly co-ordinated with the movement of their puppets’ mouths, and their gestures were well timed and naturalistic. All of the acting team worked very well and naturally together, and it was easy to forget that some had puppets whilst others did not. The music and singing under the direction of MD Anton were wonderful. The cast sang with excellent tuning, expression and lovely harmonies. The choreography was well executed by all the cast who worked both in synchronicity with each other in the dance routines and also in the puppetry. The choreography of the puppetry was notable in the perfect timing required to bring each puppet to life with the actors working cohesively with their puppets, and in the brilliant partnerships between the two-operator puppets. The action was very visual and constantly moving with the chorography neatly interwoven into it.

Everyone on stage was energetic, engaged and clearly enjoying the performance as much as the audience. 

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