Come Live on Avenue Q!
This musical took Broadway by storm about 10 years ago - and it’s still a damn funny show. It has puppets! Naked puppets! Sex with naked puppets!
And even better, Avenue Q aims to make you think. Featuring puppets of all colours, races and orientation, the show mercilessly mocks our age of political correctness with dazzling musical numbers such as “If You Were Gay”, “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and “The Internet Is For Porn.” Though Avenue Q is not authorized or approved by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, puppets such as porn-addicted Trekkie Monster and best buddies Rod and Nicky evoke childhood memories. And that’s the genius of Avenue Q - a show using puppets to deal with adult themes. It’s the shock value that makes you laugh and then go hmm...
Directed and choreographed by Peter Jorgensen, this production of Avenue Q is staged at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage. With a cast of seven performers playing 12 characters and a four-piece band, the stage is crackling with energy from start to finish. All the puppeteering work is impressive; it’s exciting to watch a puppeteer (or two) deftly operating a puppet onstage where the performers start to blend with the puppet characters in echoing their physical movements. And the speed of the show, the magic of having one character onstage and others popping out from various windows! It’s simply a whirlwind of activity, music and song.
Kudos to all the designers for a slick-looking production - and especially to Rick Lyon for the charming puppets and to Michael Sider for the clever video design. Avenue Q is beautifully designed for the Granville Island Stage as it’s a fairly small stage for such an ambitious show. Watching from only four rows back, it is a bit difficult to watch the video screens which are mounted on each side of the stage. But that’s a minor quibble at best.
If you haven’t seen Avenue Q yet, the Arts Club has mounted a fine production for Vancouver audiences. If you have seen Avenue Q before, then I suspect you’re already planning to bring your friends. Enjoy the show!