Avenue Q
Noel Coward Theatre,
Tuesday 20 June 2006
Review by Emma Shane
© June 2006
I was a bit apprehensive about seeing this show. I had heard the
original Broadway cast album and quite enjoyed bits of it, especially some
(although not all) of the lyrics. I wanted to see the show because it is so
innovative. Yet at the same time I wasn’t sure whether I would like the
puppetry, given that this was to be in the hands of four unknowns (well
unknowns as puppeteers, some of them are known as actors). The Original
Broadway cast after all had used experienced puppeteers (mostly from Sesame
Street) for those roles. When one has watched such legendary TV puppet
shows as: Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, The
Secret Life Of Toys, The Ghost Of Faffner Hall, and, Spitting
Image, one gets used to watching a rather high standard of puppetry.
How would this measure up to that?
Opening Avenue Q, performed by the entire company. It’s a
beautiful affectionate pastiche of the late Broadway songwriter Joe Raposo’s
work. Now who would ever have thought that one day Joe Raposo would
actually have his style pastiched in someone else’s musical!
On wanders Jon Robyns with Princetown on his arm, in graduation
gown, What Do You Do With A B.A. In English? Great song, and one
which I’m sure many of us can connect with, whatever our degree subject. Jon
sang it convincingly too. The puppetry though ok wasn’t as convincing as his
singing.
Enter the first of our human actors, Sion Lloyd as Brian, plus
another puppeteer, Julie Atherton with Kate Monster on her arm. I had
seen Julie on The Prince Edward Theatre’s stage some six years ago, as a
very likeable Sophie in Mamma Mia. That likeability is still
there, but this time it’s in her right hand. Right away we are focused more on
her puppet than on her, just where we should be. It Sucks To Be Me.
Another good song, rather tuneful actually; soon most of the rest of the
company join in. Best of all, one really can’t help sympathising with the
characters of Brian and Kate. I’m sure many of us have been in their sort of
situations; and the two performers did the number with engaging sympathy.
Actually this song is really growing on me.
Jon enters with Rod on his arm. Soon joined by Simon Lipkin with
Nicky on his arm, and Clare Foster as his assistant Right-handing, If
You Were Gay. Some members of the audience (like the couple of elderly
gentlemen on my right) clearly found this song both poignant and amusing. The
puppetry worked pretty well too.
Jon with Princetown on his arm wonders what his Purpose
is. Here, besides a song, we also have the first of several TV spoofs (an
affectionate parody of many an educational TV programme), on two TV screens
which are positioned just above the stage (on either side of it), in this case
illustrating the word Purpose. During the song Princetown’s moving boxes
come to life, to provide a backing chorus, performed by the other three
puppeteers. Around about this point we also meet the Bad Ideas Bears, a couple
of hand-hand-rod puppets performed by Simon and Clare, they make quite a double
act.
Julie enters with Kate on her arm, when Princetown asks if she and
Trekkie Monster are related, she accuses him of being racist, he retorts that
she is a little bit racist too, wanting to open a school for monsters, Everyone’s
A Little Bit Racist, this is some song, especially when the human
actors in the company, Ann Harada, Giles Terera, and Scion join
in. It’s a good tune, really thoughtful lyrics, and perhaps most importantly of
all there is so much truth in it. It really characterises the whole show,
amuses us (especially with the little tune parody of Lloyd-Webber’s Growl
Tiger), but also delivers a powerful edifying message.
Teaching-Assistant, Kate has a chance to teach a whole class by herself,
and considers teaching the children about the internet, she starts to sing, but
is interrupted by Trekkie (performed by Simon Lipkin), The
Internet Is For Porn. This was the song I liked the least, it is so
vulgar and crude. Unfortunately it is also irritatingly catchy, like The
Chicken Song from Spitting Image you can’t escape this
dance. Its one saving grace is Julie Atherton’s immensely likeable
Kate. The one character who I actually felt empathy with during this number.
The one other thing this number had going for it was the interaction, early in
the song between Kate and Trekkie, it was pure Muppet parody (shades of Sesame
Street, and, The Secret Life Of Toys et al), especially
the way Kate said “Trekkie, you’re ruining my song”. Julie really did
mange to do a voice that sounded uncannily similar to the sort of voices that
some of the great female muppeteers (such as: Fran Brill, Stephanie
D’Abruzzo, Louise Gold, or
Much more enjoyable, is Mix Tape, largely performed by
Julie as Kate, with some contributions from Jon as Princeton. A lovely romantic
ballad. Just the kind of good old fashioned love song tune I like to find in a
musical, but with more contemporary lyrics.
At a club Brian played by Sion entertains with I’m Not Wearing
Underwear Today. The best performance I’ve ever seen to date from a GSA
graduate. Well done. The song may be a little crude, but not too vulgar. I kind
of enjoyed it.
Special finds Julie
Atherton demonstrating her versatility, as with Lucy The Slut on her arm
she sings in a markedly different voice. Her whole manner, including her own
body changed taking on the different persona, even in the way she walked.
Nevertheless, for the most part she managed to keep the audience’s attention
focused (where it should be) on her right hand.
Another rather jolly performance from Simon and Clare as the Bad Ideas
Bears lead into You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You’re
Making Love), a song I did not like when I heard it on the album.
However, it works so much better live on stage. Naughty, shocking, very adult;
but absolutely right for the show. Most
of the cast are involved, but the stars of the number are Julie and Jon with
the naked puppets of Kate and Princeton. For two such inexperienced puppeteers
their performance was truly remarkable (perhaps a testimony to
Jon continued to puppeteer pretty well in Fantasies Come True,
this time a duet with Simon, whose work was also good.
Less good was Jon’s singing in My Girlfriend Who Lives In Canada.
(at Brian and Christmas Eve’s wedding reception). However, part of the problem
may have been Nick Finlow’s rather fast tempo, and in a sense it is in
keeping with the character, Rod, singing the song; as he throws Nicky out of
his apartment.
It is left to Julie, again demonstrating her potential as an all round
performer, to close the first act, in traditional musical theatre style, of
having the show’s romantic leads separated, There’s A Fine Fine Line.
Like Mix Tape this too is a lovely ballad, and well Julie does
her best to do it justice.
Act 2, finds Jon as
One of the amusing things about this musical, rather like Stop The
World I Want To Get Off, is that both the romantic leading lady and the
‘other woman’ are performed by the same performer. (Julie voices, and for the
most part puppeteers both Kate and Lucy). This particularly amusing when Kate
hates Princeton for having a “One Knight stands” with Lucy, and
Christmas Eve commiserates with her The More You Ruv Someone.
This becomes even funnier a little later, but first....
Out on the street Giles Terera as Gary (in a manner reminiscent
of one of the ‘Grown up’ actors on Sesame Street) explains the
concept of Schadenfreude to a homeless Nicky. Giles and Simon
both sing the lyrics clearly, and I couldn’t help feel what an appropriate song
this was for the show. (Though for some strange reason it also made me think of
such record-breaking flop shows as the musical Ziegfeld and the
play Bag).
The rivalry between Kate and Lucy, all the more funny with Julie
performing (or in this scene at least voicing) both characters, is played out
with Kate accidentally knocking Lucy senseless by dropping a coin on her head.
Truly this is something which could only be funny when done with puppets; and I
can’t help wondering if there wasn’t a sideways nod towards say Vetinarian’s
Hospital in there somewhere; at least given Princeton’s remark about
Lucy’s head falling off in the ambulance.
I Wish I Could Go Back To College, is another engaging song,
perhaps not as great as It Sucks To Be Me. But nevertheless
musically and lyrically it is quite decent, and, one does feel a lot of
sympathy for the characters. Simon, Jon, and, Julie sing well, their puppetry
is variable.
There seems to be something of a tradition for money songs in musicals: Call
Me Madam, Cabaret, and, Mamma Mia all have
good ones; and so does Avenue Q. The difference is that Avenue
Q’s The Money Song has a message about helping others, in
it. It’s a great song, and rousingly performed by a mixture of human actors,
and three of our four puppeteers.
Into the final scene, with the opening of Kate’s School For
Monsters/The Money Song Reprise, Simon with Nicky on his arm enters
along with another character, who looks just like him, a boyfriend for Rod
named Ricky - I couldn’t help wondering if this was named after someone, -
after all Sesame Street had quite a tradition of naming characters for their
personal (for example: Herry Monster, Little Jerry, Little Richard, Joey
Monkey, Davey Monkey, Louisey, and even Zoe). Nicky leads the company. Then
it’s Jon and Julie’s turn with
Overall, to my mind, the score is pretty decent; and in some places very
good. The lyrics do stand out as really thoughtful. While Robert Lopez
and Jeff Markx’s score may not be quite in the league of Stephen
Sondheim or
Jeff Witty’s book really is something. It’s funny, thoughtful,
and thought-provoking as well as entertaining. As a writer he could well be a
successor to such great television writers as Jocelyn Stevens or even
the late great Jerry Juhl. In fact Jeff Witty’s book for Avenue
Q is a direct descendent of 1960s American television advertising. The
show basically uses that style of advertising to “sell” concepts and ideas
about how to get through life (in particular ones twenties) to the audience. To
get some of the jokes it probably helps if you have seen Sesame Street
(which grew out of those 1960s advertisements, and used that style of
advertising to sell literacy and numeracy to children). Avenue Q
has quite rightly been described as “Sesame Street for adults”. There’s
a subtle affectionate parody of Sesame Street running through the
whole style of the show. I don’t usually like people parodying well known
children’s TV programmes, at least not when it’s programmes that I’m fond of.
However, the crucial difference is that the writers and designers of this stage
show clearly appreciate Sesame Street, and that is reflected in
their work. It’s everywhere, in the
songs, the style (including the video screen explanation), the puppets
(designed by former Sesame Street puppeteer
The three human actors are uniformly good. Until now, I’ve generally not
too impressed by GSA Trained actors, but for once, I actually did enjoy Sion
Lloyd’s performance. He made a convincing buffoon of an unsuccessful
comedian, a character whom one actually felt quite a lot of sympathy for; so
well done him. Broadway performer Ann Harada was another fine
performance, with great comic timing. Giles Terera gave a lovely little
performance as Gary Coleman. he really entered into the style of the show, and
played it with due seriousness (as of course did the other two, but I really
noticed it with him).
The four young “puppeteers”: Julie Atherton, Clare Foster,
Simon Lipkin, and, Jon Robyns had the most difficult job in the
show. Not least, because judging by their resumes they didn’t really have any
experience of puppeteering before. Back in December 1978 in an interview in the
TV Times British puppeteer Louise Gold (then herself
rather new to puppetry) made the profound comment “Puppeteering is a very
difficult craft to do really well”, while Jim Henson himself commented on
the documentary Of Muppets And Men The Making Of The Muppet Show,
that whenever he took on new puppeteers it generally took about a year for
their puppeering technique to get good enough for them to even start performing
major characters. So it’s a hard craft, and here on Avenue Q these
four clearly have a long way to go, however given their inexperience,
their performances were surprisingly good. When I first heard that Avenue
Q was going to be on in London, I kind of hoped we might get some
really experienced puppeteers in it (after all the original Broadway production
did). However, if the producers had done it that way it could easily have been
problematic, for if you were to have one or two performers who were very
experienced mixed with two or three who weren’t, the more experienced
performers could really have shown up the less experienced ones. So perhaps it
was better to start out with four performers whose skills were more or less on
a level with each other. There four clearly have a talent for puppetry, as well
as their more obvious musical theatre talents. If you’ve ever watched footage
of any of the really major puppeteers when they were starting out, then you can
see a similar situation. Take as an example Louise Gold’s work (I used
Gold as an example here for the simple reason that her early work as a
puppeteer is so widely shown, and thanks to a combination of her being heavily
used, having an often distinctive voice, and insisting on puppeteering
left-handed quite easy to spot). On Seasons 2 and 3 of The Muppet Show in
particular, that she had a talent for bringing puppet characters to life was
obvious, but her performances were so stiff and very rough round the edges
(look at Annie Sue Pig in Pig Calypso for example). Compare that
to her work on the two later seasons of The Muppet Show, and even
more on such programmes as Sesame Street (in the early 1990s), The
Secret Life Of Toys, and even to this day in her cabaret act, or on
television explaining how the Spitting Image puppets were
operated. She’s so much more fluid and polished. That’s the result of
experience. But the potential and talent were always there.
The young quartet on Avenue Q have potential too, but also
faults (due to their inexperience). Jon Robyns’s puppetry in particular
seems rather stiff. Though fortunately he can kind of get away with it, because
it can become a part of his two characters. Unfortunately he also has a
tendency to do a bit too much with his face, and we find ourselves focusing
somewhat on him rather than his puppet. Simon Lipkin and Clare Foster,
have not only had to learn to operate hand-and-rod puppets, but also live-hands
puppets. They work best as a team, whether it is operating a Live-hands puppet
together (be it Nicky or Trekkie), or performing a double act with a couple of
hand-and-rod puppets, the Bad Ideas Bears. Alone neither of them is as good.
Simon has a slight tendency to draw the audiences focus onto himself rather
than his puppet, and Clare is usually operating other people’s character’s,
(because they are doing two characters in the same scene). But together Simon
and Clare have a chemistry, that makes you concentrate on their puppets rather
than them. Puppetry (at least this sort of puppetry) has benefited enormously
from some great double-acts over there years*. The best of the quartet is Julie
Atherton. I thought her a fine actress when I saw her six years ago in Mamma
Mia, I didn’t think so much of her in Out Of This World at
Chichester. But back in the West End she is once again a winner. Although her
puppetry still has a long way to go, she really is convincing. Out of the four
she was the one who seemed to connect the most with her puppet, grasping the
technique of performing her role through her hand. One is nearly always focused
exactly where one should, on her puppet not her. Added to which, she has the
ability as an actress to be convincing by giving her character a likeability.
With the role of Kate Monster this is something she successfully translates
into her puppetry. I’d like to see her try her hand at the role of Sister Mary
Amnesia in Nunsense, I think she could quite possibly pull that
one off.
All four performers are obviously versatile, and should they want to I
hope they can find the opportunity to be successful in both fields. If only
casting directors were enlightened enough. Usually even performers who have
done a bit of both acting and puppeteering tend to be primarily one or the
other. Quite a number of successful puppeteers did start out as actors, but for
one reason or another switched into puppetry, they include: Mark Jefferis,
Kathryn Mullen, Jerry Nelson (one of the greatest singing
puppeteers ever), and,
Overall a great fun, feel good, groundbreaking show. Edifying but also
enjoyable. If this kind of thing sounds like it might be up your street, then
consider going to see it.
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*There are two kinds of great double acts, Simon and Clare are tribute
to both :
Performing Nicky or Trekkie they kind of reflect the many great
partnerships between a puppeteer and his or her assistant such as: Jim
Henson & Frank Oz (Swedish Chef), Richard Hunt & Jerry
Nelson (The Two-Headed Monster), Jim Henson & Louise Gold (The
Muppet Newsreader, Captain Link Hogthrob); And not forgetting of course Rowlf
the dog whom Jim Henson performed with a variety of assistants (Frank
Oz, Louise Gold, and, Steve Whitmire among them).
Performing the Bad Ideas Bears, they reflect the wonderful chemistry
that can exist between two puppeteers with their individual characters, such
pairings as: Jim Henson & Frank Oz (Bert & Ernie, Kermit
& Piggy, Kermit & Fozzie etc), Richard Hunt & Jerry
Nelson, Dave Goelz & Steve Whitmire (Gonzo & Rizzo,
Stinky & Jake etc), Louise Gold & Jerry Nelson (Cowboy
Jerry & Lou-The-Jugband-Lady, Herry Monster & Louisey, The Tourist Rats
etc).. to name but a few.
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Off Site Links:
Avenue Q, London Production, Official Site: http://www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk/
My review
of seeing Julie Atherton in Mamma Mia (where her co-stars included Louise
Gold): http://www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Website_Louise_Gold/Mamma_Mia_Review.htm
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