Do You Want To Feel Special?

Old, trusty, reliable, Avenue Q. Part of that sensational group of musicals that erupted out of America in the noughties along with Wicked and Spring Awakening, Avenue Q stole crucial awards at the Tonys and had a long and hilarious run at the Noel Coward on the West End. It has been going on tour since it closed in the capital, and in its latest reincarnation, it has stopped off at the Belgrade in Coventry, an underappreciated gem of a theatre.

I have loved Avenue Q for an unacceptable period of time. When I saw it on the West End I laughed so much and so loudly that one of the actors told me they were mentioning it in the wings. It is, very possibly, the funniest musical ever written, and the recent tour did not fail to have the audience rolling in the aisles. Admittedly there were friends and family of the cast in the audience, but every single person laughed constantly throughout the show.

The show tells the tragically relevant story of Princeton, a recent graduate with a BA in English who fears he may never amount to anything. Living in the downtrod neighbourhood of Avenue Q with the failed comedian Brian, his mildly-offensive Japanese wife Christmas Eve, American child celebrity Gary Coleman, a frequently masturbating Trekkie Monster, roommates and best friends Nicky and Rod and the beautiful Kate Monster, Princeton searches for his purpose and a real life in the real world. If this all sounds a bit camp and cheesy then you are predominantly right, but any risk of it being saccharine is saved by the show being performed half the time by Sesame Street style puppets, who have save, do weed, seduce and down absinthe daiquiris like the rest of us. The show is exceptionally clever as well as hilarious, meaning that you never fear the show is holding itself together with cheap laughs; you are constantly amazed at the world it manages to create so effectively with a cast of seven.

Although the puppetry was sloppy in the opening scenes (mouths were moved merely to be moving rather than to fit the words) and the performances felt nervous and forced at times in the first few songs, the show moved on and so did the performers, ignoring first night nerves and friends in the audience and generating a moving performance of the show. However, vocals were more strained (both in ranges and delivery) than previous productions, with ‘American’ becoming synonymous with ‘weak’ at times with tone. A few lines also got lost in their attempts to replicate famous character accents, like the bad idea bears.

Seeing the show with friends also reminded me that, for newcomers, sometimes the humour can be borderline offensive where repeated watches have made it seem almost acceptable for me. The show treads a very fine line on the topics of racism and homosexuality and whilst obviously against them, also enjoys them in the form of Christmas Eve and Rod, both of whom seem to become more offensive with every passing production. If you are of faint constitution, look away now; the puppet coitus won’t get you, but the racist Chinese accent might.