A Review of Avenue Q

By BRIANMAY BABY

01 February 2010

“It’s just the kind of show New Yorkers like - sharp and witty on the outside but with a sticky sickly centre of pure marshmallow.” Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph

Before Avenue Q hit the West End in 2006 after a successful run on Broadway, journalist Charles Spencer felt that the British public wouldn‘t be as willing as the Americans to accept such a soppy-centred show: “They aren’t going to buy a musical with singing puppets, arcane American references, and moments when the wisecracking stops and matters turn yuckily sentimental.” I certainly found it very hard to stomach, but it seems overall to have in fact been a great success. Having run its course from June 28th 2006 to April 25th 2009, ticket sales became so strong after the October 17th 2008 announcement of the show’s closure, that the show was opened again in a different theatre (moving from the Noel Coward Theatre to the Gielgud Theatre). It remains so popular that on March 19th this year it will be moving again, this time to the Wyndham’s Theatre. This all adds weight to my speculation that the British public are largely utter morons.

So, I guess I should explain what the show’s about for those of you lucky enough to know nothing about it yet. It’s basically Sesame Street with sex and swearing. In fact one of the show’s conceivers, Jeff Marx, and the puppet designer/original cast member Rick Lyons have actually worked for Sesame Street. “Unlike Sesame Street, Avenue Q openly addresses adult topics such as racism, pornography, and homosexuality….adult language and "full puppet nudity" (including puppet sex)” - Wikipedia.

“This musical is Sesame Street for grown-ups who find the idea of puppets talking dirty and having sex hilarious” says Lyn Gardner of The Guardian. I could paraphrase this: “This musical is for grown-ups totally lacking a sense of humour that rises above the banal.” Gardner also states: “Without the puppets, this would be unbearable. Even with them, it's teeth-grindingly cute.”

I admit there were a couple of moments that I enjoyed - the song “Everyone’s a little bit racist” was lyrically fairly on the money and “The internet is for porn” was fairly enjoyable as well. But if the transparently provocative and fairly depthless humour of cute puppets singing rude things is (as I believe it is) the best feature of the show, then that’s pretty worrying for the show! The show’s writers seem to find this all incredibly clever. Possible allusions to “The Heiress” in the naming of Kate Monster and Mrs Thistletwat, and to “The Beggar’s Opera” in the naming of Lucy the Slut might add to the speculation that the show’s creators believe they are presenting a musical that is in some way intellectually stimulating….. which of course they are not in any imaginable way!

It will be an enjoyable night for some people though (everyone I went to see it with enjoyed it). In spite of the fact that I did not enjoy it myself, I think that at its very best it could be summed up by the following quote:

"It's a little bit smart, fairly shrewd and self-parodying, constantly perky, sometimes funny and basically mushy." Susannah Clap for The Observer