The trigger warning \u201cpuppet nudity\u201d does not begin to cover it. You will also see puppets having sex, singing about being \u201ca little bit racist\u201d and gleefully owning up to their predilections for porn.<\/p>\n
Avenue Q\u2019s cute subversiveness is back, 20 years<\/a> after these fuzzy-felt Sesame Street<\/a> wannabes took the West End by storm. Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx\u2019s Tony award-winning musical is not exactly shocking now but it\u2019s very amusing as these creatures (plus some humans) fall in love, have existential crises and create merry havoc.<\/p>\n Directed by Jason Moore on Anna Louizos\u2019s house-lined set, as flat as a child\u2019s drawing, it kicks off with the arrival of bushy-tailed college graduate Princeton (Noah Harrison) on the titular New York street, and leads into his romance with Kate Monster (a Shrek-like outsider played by Emily Benjamin) and his search for life\u2019s greater meaning. His new neighbours include plain-speaking Japanese therapist Christmas Eve (Amelia Kinu Muus), former child star turned handyman Gary (Dionne Ward-Anderson), and Rod (also Harrison) and Nicky (Charlie McCullagh) \u2013 flatmates in the mould of Sesame Street\u2019s Bert and Ernie.<\/p>\n \u2018Sunny puppet-bound escapism\u2019 \u2026 Noah Harrison (Princeton) and Dionne Ward-Anderson (Gary). Photograph: Matt Crockett<\/p>\n There is a noughties naughtiness to songs like If You Were Gay, Everyone\u2019s a Little Bit Racist and The Internet Is for Porn, the last led by Trekkie Monster exuding Cookie Monster-turns-dirty vibes. These songs go all-out to bust taboos and might have sounded explosive back in the day. The subject matter is still current (from the resurgence of homophobia to the revival of Black Lives Matter), but not as charged in shock value. The hammy Japanese accent by Austrian-Japanese performer Kinu Muus is possibly the most striking thing. There is also the pre-#MeToo moniker of Lucy (\u201cthe slut\u201d), an influencer who looks like a puppet version of Bonnie Blue with a plunging neck-line (\u201cyeah, they\u2019re real\u201d, she coos).<\/p>\n The force of the show\u2019s faux-naivety works because of the comic dissonance between the puppets\u2019 innocence \u2013 wide eyes, cutesy voices \u2013 and their adult misbehaviour (drunkenness, pole dancing, sex and betrayal). Lopez and Marx\u2019s songs are a blast, from the cleverness of Schadenfreude to the melancholy in Kate\u2019s break-up song, There\u2019s a Fine, Fine Line, and the closeted hilarity of Rod singing My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada. Every number is performed with such physical and vocal exuberance by the cast of actor-puppeteers, especially the spectacular Harrison and Benjamin, that it really does seem as if the puppets are doing the talking, singing and shagging.<\/p>\n Puppet designer Rick Lyon\u2019s furry creations are winkingly derivative (he worked on Sesame Street for 15 seasons). It is a recognisably clever riff on the children\u2019s show, with its animation breakouts, preschool educational lessons and Oscar the Grouch\u2019s signature dustbins in the backdrop. But the kooky satire also stands on its own terms. Jeff Whitty\u2019s award-winning book has been updated with jokey mentions of AI, OnlyFans and Spotify, while the song Mix Tape has a tongue-in-cheek reference to such an \u201colden days\u201d phenomenon.<\/p>\n The production trades off its sweet\/subversive\/manic charms and the story itself is not especially strong. But who cares? It brings such sunny puppet-bound escapism while never quite leaving our world and the mess that human beings have created in it. The show ends on a hopeful note with heavy helpings of \u201cthis too will pass\u201d spirit. It is all only for now, the puppets tell us \u2013 even Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trigger warning \u201cpuppet nudity\u201d does not begin to cover it. 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