Avenue Q

Avenue Q, inspired by Sesame Street brings us the story of Princeton, a recent college graduate, who wishes to discover his purpose in life. Kate Monster, a teaching assistant; Rod, a Republican banker who is also coming to terms with his sexuality. Nicky, Rod's roommate and Rod’s secret crush. Brian, an aspiring comedian. Christmas Eve, Brian's fiancée. Trekkie Monster, a recluse with a hobby of searching for porn on the internet. Gary Coleman, the superintendent and the former child star of “Different Stokes” Lucy the Slut, sassy, sexy and alluring, enough to have all the men swooning after her and finally the Bad Idea Bears, who are the bad influence in Princeton’s life and causing havoc on Avenue Q.

On entering the auditorium, the scene was set out for us, a novel idea to surround the band in boxes and general rubbish bringing the whole visual right out to the audience. A great set stood unlit but we had actors building the theme as homeless people whilst the audience were settling into their seats. Once the set was lit, we could see a wonderful structure with different levels of windows and doors. Graffiti covered the set and made an impression of being a run-down area. A projection screen in the middle of the stage where Sesame street style learning exercises were focused, excellent graphic design. Other elements were brought on to create new scenes where needed, a puppet bed, armchairs and so on.

Staging was very slick making all transitions seamless. Lighting was always excellent, follow spots were never off their mark. Loved the Around the Clock Café scene, the projection on both walls either side of the stage were also effective.

The direction throughout was of a high standard and Ben Ireson had good vision for this production, from the lighting plot, musicality, staging and characteristics of each actor. When you are faced with using puppets every detail of each actor needs to be examined. A person’s stance, facial expressions, ensuring the audience can see from all angles and of course that both actor and puppet are in sync. With this in mind, there were only two things that I could nit-pick upon, that being that Lucy was at times, out of sync and on one occasion where Princeton was on the actors upstage hand the actor was turned half upstage (talking to Kate Monster), we couldn’t see puppet at this point.

I must commend Ben for his vision and work on this piece it had all the layers of comedy we expected from this script but he also dealt with the prime themes so well. Each actor was delivered very well and I can only imagine the hard work done with every character to get the very best form each one.

Musically, this show always delivers bad news with a happy tune, “It Sucks to be Me” being a good example, your listening to lyrics which convey job loss, parents that rip off their kid, but the melody is happy, chirpy and you want to tap along which makes the whole piece genius. Tim Walker had a good, tight band and produced a great sound. There was a happy balance between band and stage. Tim got the best from his cast and was really blessed to have some amazing vocalists in the production to work with.

Choreography was satisfactory and worked well when the full ensemble was on stage. As there is not a massive amount for a chorus in this show there certainly gave everything when they came on. I loved the “box faces” and the routine was creative.

Ben Ireson as Princeton played a wonderful role as the naïve and new to adulthood character. Equipped with a good accent he delivered his songs so well, he worked well with Kate Monster and the “Loud as the hell you want” was hilarious. His facial expressions were perfect to convey every emotion Princeton was feeling. Well-rounded performance.

Kate Monster, what great vocal clarity Jessica Lloyd had for this role. She really studied this role and got the love-struck monster spot on. “There’s a fine fine line” was a personal highlight. She had all the elements of comedy and emotion and was very much in sync with the puppet.

Christmas Eve, brought to us by Vicki Harrison had a wonderful Japanese accent, her performance was flawless and I really enjoyed her rendition of “The more you ruv someone”. Her portrayal of the role was a joy to watch, fiery and funny and a loud-mouth.

Dave Mallen as Brain was funny, outlandish and warm. He had a very nice energy on stage and his addition to the cast was great. He interacted well with Christmas Eve and they had a good chemistry throughout, accompanied with a nice vocal.

Josh Hankey as Rod, well exceptional work from this actor. His facial expressions were very funny and he really has great comic timing. His delivery of “Canada” was one of the highlights of the evening. His interaction with Nicky was lovely and almost heartbreaking, a difficult topic of hidden sexuality and unrequited love.

Nicky, played by Oliver Hale gave a good delivery of the role. Excellent accent and a really endearing performer. Oliver, I felt had a great face for this role and he really was at one with the puppet, he really delivered some lovely emotion. He worked really well with Rod.

Gary Coleman brought to us by Alex Aram, great soulful vocal in his solos, with great stage presence. A great delivery of “Loud as the Hell you want” a difficult one to sing when competing with the other ‘activities’ taking place on stage at the same time. Gave a very soulful soundtrack for this scene.

Trekkie Monster, was brought to life by the very talented Nathan Hatton. A good level of difficulty with this role requiring a very exact style of voice. “The Internet” was certainly the biggest crowd pleaser of the night and he worked very well with Kate Monster in this song. His expressions and use of the puppet were on point. This was a character full of life and bursting with energy every time he came to the stage.

Kirsty Hall and Jonathan Hall caused all kinds of mischief playing the Bad Idea Bears, some of the funniest moments were delivered by them. Really enjoyed this duo. Great acting by both performers.

Jennifer Connah brought us Lucy, a sassy, sexy delivery and played the role well visually. Lovely and sultry vocal in her number “Special”- which drew in all the male attention in the scene. However, I was less convinced by the accent as there was some variance from scene to scene.

Mrs. T played by Clare Moorhouse, a fine character actress I suspect, this lady had a super accent and made this cameo role very memorable.

It must be said that every actor having to not only consider their own movement on the stage had a puppet which needed equal attention. It is a case of double tasking but you all delivered so much more than just basic movement. You gave life, lovely light and shade to each of your individual puppets and the audience bought into your story. I appreciated your attention to detail when working the puppets, they and you looked awesome.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this production. A brave choice to stage a show that is not politically correct and deals with themes of racism, homosexuality, pornography and sex in such a vibrant and outlandish way. It crosses all the boundaries and spell it out for you. These very themes can be found within many shows as underlying themes or more hidden between the lines but Avenue Q throws it in your face and makes no apologies, a bit like life really. A job very well done by cast and production team.

On a personal note, we really appreciated the minute’s silence held at the start for the victims of the Manchester bombing.

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