Review: Avenue Q

THIS musical is Sesame Street for grown-ups who find the idea of puppets talking dirty and having sex hilarious. Set in a rundown multicultural neighbourhood, Avenue Q stars furry Kate Monster, who falls for newcomer Princeton. Armed with his useless degree, Princeton is looking for a purpose in life. Meanwhile, Brian and his Asian-American wife are moving towards marriage, and gay Rod is looking to come out of the closet but has lost the key. Just like when you were five, everything turns out happily with pots of money and true love – and Lucy the Slut, who threatens to come between Kate and Princeton, gets the nasty end that bad girls deserve in this fairy-tale world.

The show was presented at Yeadon Town Hall last week for four nights by Futurist Theatre Productions who take young people from the age of ten up to their mid-twenties and develop their theatre talents. This certainly showed in the performances by the nine main principals in the show.

As far as plaudits are concerned I must mention in particular Thomas Lillywhite as Princeton and Lauren Patrick as Kate Monster, both of whose singing and puppetry was excellent. They were equally supported by Rosie Ross as Gary Coleman, John Cairns as Rod, Ellie Harper as Lucy the Slut, Tom Patrick as Nicky, Fiona Spencer as Christmas Eve, Kristian Cleworth as Brian and James Underwood as the Trekkie Monster. All of these were very good with both their singing and acting and also for those who were operating puppets, excellent in their puppetry. You can tell this is good when you concentrate more on the puppets than watching the actors themselves.

The show was well produced by Jamie Hudson and Catherine Moglia had done an excellent job as Director and Choreographer. However, there were a couple of issues that spoiled the overall enjoyment of the show for me. The amplification of some of the performers was not very good on the night I attended as quite often it was difficult to pick up the words in some of the songs and dialogue. This was not helped by the volume of the orchestra under the direction of Will Rowson. The orchestra needed to be more sympathetic to the performer’s voices. Will has previously been musical director of Otley Brass Band but he now needs to be aware that in musical productions he is supporting singers and although their volume can be adjusted by the use of microphones, if the orchestra is too loud this then has an adverse effect on the amplification as mentioned above.

Overall, however, it appeared that the majority of the audience enjoyed the show, as evidenced by the applause for all the songs and the loud applause for the bows by the performers at the end of the evening.

by John Burland

All photographs courtesy of John Waite Photography