“Avenue Q”: Puppets pull at viewers’ heartstrings
Playing the best friends Nicky and Rob, junior Connor Davis and senior Dylan Fidler perform “If You Were Gay.”
As someone who had never known about the musical “Avenue Q” prior to purchasing a ticket to see it, I entered the theatre informed by my peers that I would be walking into a slightly more adult-oriented interpretation of “Sesame Street.”
It was everything described to me and more.
Vibrant, edgy and a light-hearted comedic follow-up to the performance “404”, the playful use of puppetry and “raunchy” humor in “Avenue Q” both offered its audience a much-appreciated laugh as well as highlighted the musical talent of the theatre troupe.
In all its splendor, one of the most impressive elements of this production was the commitment of the actors to their characters. Much of this musical revolved around voicework – consistently maintaining the lisp-like qualities possessed by puppet creatures while concurrently managing the puppets themselves.
Clad in all black, the student performers’ ability to manipulate their props into realistic gestures/mannerisms in addition to the musical numbers – and accompanying dialogue – was nothing short of impressive.
Looking beyond the actors themselves though, I was pleasantly surprised in general that a piece like this made the stage. I was certain that something of this caliber would be heavily censored, and probably diluted, for the sake of palatability amongst a largely student and parent audience.
Once again, it was everything described to me – and more. I still laugh to myself as I think about it.
While there is no doubt that tasteful censorship was present, it still retained the perfect amount of quality, inappropriate humor to startle the crowd into genuine and nervous laughter. Satire has only further proved itself to be the best platform to tackle topics that can be difficult to talk about: racism, sexuality, self-fulfillment and the futility of an English degree.
For this reason, my respect for our theatre has only increased, as well as my appreciation for such a well-chosen contemporary piece. It’s easy to fall back on classic Shakespearean dramas, but this courageous one-act show was something I would easily pay to see again.
Once the show ended, and I realized I had to leave, there was one more small touch that just added to this production as an experience: the student performers came out with their puppets, still in character, to mingle and chat with the home-bound viewers, taking pictures and accepting bouquets of flowers.
Overall, I was thoroughly entertained and am now hesitant to look for the “real” version of “Avenue Q” – just in case it doesn’t live up to the level of enjoyment I experienced here, witnessing it on campus and live before my eyes.