Avenue Q

When a young man graduates from Princeton he has to move to Avenue Q to live while he tries to find his purpose in life. This is a rundown, poor area of New York where he meets friends, finds love and then loses it for a while. What is different in this musical is that the majority of characters are puppets, not the pure innocent ones of Sesame Street which was the inspiration of the idea, but rather ones showing the full range of human strengths and weaknesses. There are only three human characters in the play.

The set attracts your attention from the curtain opening in that it looked the poor area it was meant to be but offered the necessary versatility needed for many varied entrances on several levels. It also allowed for small changes of locale.Director John Boyce has used this set to the maximum effect with the movement of his talented cast. He was ably assisted by his technical crew.

The hand puppets were carried, manipulated and voiced by the cast who maintained a high standard, also singing well. Tyler Stevens, who was both Princeton and Rod, and Lara Boyle as Kate Monster impressed. Katherine Alpert, Natalie Mead and Travis Hook were the human characters competing with the puppets. There was not a weak performer in the entire cast.

After a brief while, you are no longer conscious of the puppeteers but become absorbed by the puppets themselves and their personalities. The standard of the overall production has maintained the level of the past by this company. Maybe their address should be changed to Avenue Q.

This Avenue Q is very good entertainment and I recommend it highly.

William Davies