Review: Avenue Q At Richmond Theatre Is "Thoroughly Recommended"

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An 'adult version of Sesame Street' is excellent entertainment

Avenue Q might be described as a sort of adult version of Sesame Street with songs covering some controversial or sensitive subjects such as homelessness, sexuality, racism and porn with a bit of schadenfreude thrown in.

The main characters are puppets although there are three humans, Christmas Eve, Brian and Gary Coleman who also live on Avenue Q and the plot mainly concerns Princeton's search for his 'Purpose' but also the relationships between all the residents.

It might be described as a puppet love story which includes a hilarious but very clever sex scene between the puppets and ends with a Sleepless-in-Seattle-esq scene on the Empire State Building where a twist in the tail sees the main female character, Kate Monster, accidentally get rid of her love rival Lucy the Slut allowing her and Princeton to live happily ever after.  Flatmates Rod and Nicky also have a bit of a stormy relationship which again all works out happily in the end.  Trekkie Monster is the remaining resident and has a dubious reputation!!

The Bad Idea Bears were a couple of great characters who added a fair degree of mischief to the plot and caused a great deal of hilarity among the audience.

We had the opportunity to meet the casts and some of the puppets before the show and it was great to chat with, among others, Sarah Harlington, who played both Kate and Lucy, about the puppetry 'bootcamp' the actors had attended as part of the show rehearsal process. It seemed all were new to puppetry prior to getting a part in the show, but from the performance last night, you would never know. It was very cleverly done and was an excellent evening's entertainment which I would thoroughly recommend.

By Anne Horsbugh

October 28, 2015