What do you get when you cross Sesame Street with South Park? Foul-mouthed puppets, adult themes and lots of laughter, that’s what.
The stage is a seedy version of the Sesame Street you will no doubt have watched on television: more rubbish bins overflowing with bags, empty six-packs sitting on the pavement and grime-encrusted windows on the houses. This is clearly where the unemployed puppets live.
Avenue Q is full of big musical numbers and toe-tapping tunes. The performers all parody the Sesame Street/Playschool style of performance: big grins at all times, chirpy voices and lots of sweetness, but there’s a wonderfully black and subversive vein running beneath the happy exteriors.
The cast is fabulous. Mitchell Butel, Natalie Alexopoulos and Luke Joslin stand out in particular as they play more than one role and sometimes have to sing a dialogue between two characters, all on their own.
So, what’s the story? Well, Princeton (Butel with a fresh-faced Muppet on one arm) is just out of college and looking for a place to live. He has a BA, heaps of debts and is qualified for nothing (cue song: 'What do you do with a BA in English?’). Fortunately the rent is cheap on Avenue Q and the people are oh so smiley and friendly. How could they not be with Gary Coleman as their superintendent?
I’ve no idea how the shows writers and producers got away with having a character called Gary Coleman (Leah Howard) based on the child star who played Arnold in Diff’rent Strokes. Their Gary Coleman sings about how it sucks to have been a child star and peaked before adolescence, he does impressions of his most famous lines from the TV show and he points out that however bad other people think their lives are, they can always look at him and feel like they’ve got it good. (Apparently the real Gary Coleman was not impressed and has been threatening legal action.) Cue songs: ‘It sucks to be me’ and ‘Schadenfreude’.
Princeton moves in with Kate Monster (Alexopoulos) as his neighbour on one side and Bert and Ernie – oops, sorry: Rod and Nicky – on the other side. Kate is Princeton’s very sweet and furry love interest. The puppet sex scene between them was hilarious and brought the house down (cue song: ‘You can be as loud as the hell you want (when you’re makin’ love)). Rod (also played by Butel) and Nicky (Joslin) get to sleep in the signature single beds with Rod obsessively tidying and fantasising about Nicky, while Nicky cruises through life, seemingly oblivious.
Just like in Sesame Street, there are actors who are humans, interacting with the puppets as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. In this case they are Brian (David James), Christmas Eve (Christina O’Neill) and Gary Coleman (Howard). Christmas Eve’s torch number about wanting to kill the people you love was outstanding.
There are big warning signs on Avenue Q’s marketing advising that it’s ‘Not for kids’ and I suggest you take them seriously. Your child might be fine with swearing, but songs like ‘Everyone’s a little bit racist’ might take a bit more explaining. Especially as each verse has a character taking a swipe at a different ethnic group or religion. You don’t want that sort of thing repeated in the classroom…
Avenue Q is wonderfully irreverent while managing to maintain a genuinely sweet centre. It’s on until 21 March at the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC.
