Avenue Q

Avenue Q enjoyed massive success on Broadway and in the West End after its début in 2002, and has been revived at the Greenwich Theatre after leaving the Wyndham’s Theatre for its last UK tour in 2012. It tells the story of Princeton, a recent graduate whose sunny, optimistic hopes for his future are systematically crushed by the reality of adult life, and of the new friends he makes in the eponymous run-down neighbourhood of New York. Most of the characters are puppets, operated by unconcealed performers who do an impressive job of singing, dancing, acting and manoeuvring sometimes more than one puppet all simultaneously.

The musical itself is full of brilliantly catchy numbers and irreverent humour, with very funny moments, but it seems to throw out contentious issues such as racism, porn and homosexuality with all the finesse and cohesion of a ten-year-old showing off to his school friends about all the dirty words he knows. The shock factor may have made up for the show’s crudeness in 2002, when it was accompanied on the cultural stage by the likes of South Park and Team America: World Police, but compared to the shocking but sophisticated humour of its direct descendant The Book of Mormon, for example, it has started to look like a crude anachronism. Its progressiveness is undermined at every turn: the characters live in a mixed neighbourhood, but ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist’; one character is a closeted homosexual, but his friend says he’d still be his friend EVEN IF (shock horror) he were gay. But he’s not gay himself. Definitely. The main female character is well-rounded, ambitious and clever, and gets to have promiscuous sex, but then she’s punished for it (losing her job) and gets typecast into the aggravating Stone Age stereotype of women trying to trap men into marriage. Oh, and there is a character called Lucy the Slut. I can’t even.

It must be said, however, that the production received a standing ovation and healthy belly laughs throughout, so perhaps there is still an appeal in indulging our less grown-up, less politically correct side once in a while. The performers are excellent, particularly Lucie-May Sumner as Kate Monster, whose puppetry and characterisation are outstanding and who would frequently carry off a triumphant scene between two different puppets single-handedly. Stephen Arden also stands out, with his transformative voice work and comic timing, and Jacqueline Tate does a great job of turning a potentially unfunny racial stereotype into a likeable, funny and rounded character (and yes I did giggle at her comical Japanese accent).

Some of the performers need to turn their puppets towards the audience more, rather than succumbing to the temptation to point their faces naturalistically toward the character they are speaking to, which simply doesn’t read on stage – but on the whole the puppetry is wonderfully expressive and funny. Director Cressida Carré’s background in choreography is instrumental in bringing the puppets to life, and the production’s slickness compensates for the wet-willy schoolyard wit of the script.

Avenue Q is playing at Greenwich Theatre until 11 May. For more information and tickets, see the Greenwich Theatre website.