Review: Avenue Q
By Ben Sloan taken from Metro 06
*****
Avenue Q wears it's heart on its sleeve and its inspiration with pride. It is the un-PC Sesame Street with a Burt and Ernie-esque pair of flatmates (Rod and Nicky, complete with gay issues), a furry cookie monster figure (the porn-addicted trekkie monster), playful interaction between humans and puppets and animated inserts illustrating the story. And the story, about young English graduate Princeton's attempts to find his purpose, neatly covers - in catchy songs - the facts of modern life: that the Internet is really for porn, that everyone's a little bit racist, and that the more you love someone the more you want to kill them.
The enthusiasm of the seven-strong core cast is obvious to see and the puppeteers, all clearly visible beside their charges on stage, inject some lovely moments of characterisation. Julie Atherton's Kate Monster is as hilarious when she's drunk as when she's trying to convince Princeton she's a party animal. Jon Robyns' closet-case Rod is brilliantly uptight when his evening of Broadway musicals is interrupted, while Simon Lipkin's Trekkie Monster is gleefully perverted. Anna Louizos' set, with it's open-out puppet-size versions of each apartment is also great.
However, it's not a complete success. The pace slows in places and it's by no means as scathing, risque or hilarious as it could have been. Rather than being sharp, it's often remarkably, well, fluffy. Take away the puppets and much of the humour would be lost and you long for a few more gags in some of the songs. Nevertheless when it hits its stride, which is more often than not, Avenue Q is fun, funny and like nothing else in the West End.
Ben Sloan