Saucy Avenue Q a hit with Liverpool audience

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AVENUE Q
9/10
Lovers having sex on stage can be erotic or disturbing – but when it’s done by puppets it’s hilarious.
This is just one aspect of the laugh-out-loud clever and irreverent ‘out there’ aspect of the Tony award winning Avenue Q, the 2003 Broadway hit that transferred to the West End in 2006. Now, Theatre Royal Bath is exporting this Cameron Mackintosh production across the nation and you can indulge in this ‘naughty’ adult show at the Liverpool Empire until Saturday June 16.
All true life is here. Gay relationships – “If you’re gay, that’s ok”, “If you’re queer, I’d still be here”, teenage angst – “It sucks to be me”, friendship, racism, love lost and regained – “A fine line between love and a waste of time”, and of course porn and sex, are openly sung about by wacky puppets and their puppeteers who do a magnificent job with witty dialogue and punchy songs by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, with brilliant actions to match by puppet coach Nigel Plaskitt.
The set is a ramshackle run-down terrace in Avenue Q, situated in a down-and-out New York suburb, where out of windows and doors pop all sorts of weird characters, a sort of Simpsons-meets-the-Muppets formula with a touch of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
Muppet-type characters complete with a flamed-haired Trekkie Monster (Luke Striffler), dance and sing with their puppet-masters in a simple plot that is fresh, neat and honest with the F-word sprinkled here and there, and the odd shock of a sexual reference, that, if you aren’t paying close attention can too easily miss, so tight is this pacey production.
We learn about ‘real life’ as these young people come to terms with adulthood – that we are all just a ‘little bit racist’ – was Jesus white or black, are puppet Monsters all the same - that ‘coming out’ is a delicate and personal process, that giving is often enlightening, that a BA in English is ‘a useless degree’. We also learn that ambition is often dashed and then re-enlivened, that we all need a ‘purpose’, but in the end nothing is always perfect, we just have to accept what we have - for now.
There is a running joke about porn complete with audience interaction, a wonderful dream sequence about two flatmates and a possible gay relationship complete with dry ice, rockets, multi-coloured bubbles and star-spangled lights. And another stream-of-consciousness motif regarding fear of commitment with monster puppets marrying and a large monster emerging over the roof. There are also popular cultural references to Simon Cowell, Justin Bieber and Jeremy Kyle, which all add to the richness and diversity of this innovative and politically incorrect show.
TV boxes as the ‘ears’ to the stage light up giving us cartoon characters to emphasise a humorous point or to follow the heart trace of dying Lucy the Slut, the sexy puppet who tries to seduce Princeton (Sam Lupton) away from girlfriend Kate Monster (Katharine Moraz) who have already had hilarious sex on stage.
The cast do a great job singing the often rude lyrics and the choreography and manipulation are faultless. This show is lively and upbeat and a great tonic for the summer-time cold-weather blues. If you are easily offended – then stay away! Otherwise make a date to see what is truly a funny, original and spirit-lifting musical with truth at its core.