Avenue Q

By Sarah Schlesinger

What if...you couldn’t find your purpose?

Avenue Q is a funny, thought-provoking musical. The cast includes humans and puppets who live and work together. This seemingly childlike puppet world is filled with the problems and practicalities of adulthood. The puppets and their human friends all attempt to follow their dreams and to find their life purposes. Some characters have knowledge of their dreams, but are unable to attain them, while others seek to understand themselves and who they want to become. The characters are lovable and are very easy to connect to.

The audience has a full view of the actors who control the puppets as they perform onstage with their smaller counterparts, but this does not take away from the show. Instead, it adds to the performance as the puppet and the actor contribute to the depth of the overall character in ways neither could manage alone. The facial expressions and body movements of the actor contribute to the physicality of the puppets and the puppets bring the world of Avenue Q to life.

The musical is based on the style of Sesame Street, even using two televisions on the sides of the stage to play the show’s opening theme and to emphasize certain points with cartoons. Despite this, Avenue Q is not appropriate for children.

With songs that are funny, frank and extremely catchy, I highly recommend Avenue Q to teenagers.

HOW TO SEE THE SHOW:  $26.50 rush tickets • New World Stages, Stage 3, 340 W. 50th St.

Avenue Q

by Jahnesha Huertas

Sex. Love. Racism. A dwindling economy. Life after graduation, suddenly realizing that four years of college tuition has gotten you nowhere. These are just a few topics explored in the musical Avenue Q. Not exactly what first comes to mind in a play that features various muppet-like puppets and a Sesame Street-like set.

Princeton has just arrived to Avenue Q after graduating college, and while looking for an apartment and a job, he realizes that he also must find his purpose. He is determined not to just get by in life, but instead embark on something that he feels passionate about. He meets Kate Monster, who is on a mission to establish a school to build the self-esteem of monsters every where. They begin a whirl-wind romance jaded by a harlot of a blues singer and two “bad news bears”.

Meanwhile, the other residents of Avenue Q have their own problems to deal with. Christmas Eve and Brian prepare for marriage, Gary Coleman ponders his failure as a celebrity and what used to be of his fortune and Rod and Nicky (think Bert and Ernie) hit a snag in their friendship. I was expecting to see a plethora of puppets attached to strings controlled by puppeteers lurking unseen in the shadow, but to my surprise, the actors onstage acted as puppeteers. Some of them played more then one character when both puppets where onstage and their ability to change characters instantly really showcased their talent. For instance, Carey Anderson’s sweet Kate Monster was miles away from her portrayal of saucy singer Lucy the Slut. The actors dressed in dark colors to contrast with the brightness of the puppets and the set. This definitely made it easier to forget that the actors were there and put the focus on the puppets. The multiracial cast was refreshing to see as it modeled a realistic New York setting.

Avenue Q was unexpectedly touching. With a humorous plot, it allowed the audience to connect with their inner-child while answering some grown-up questions about life, friendship and love in our fast paced lives.

HURRY! This show ends on September 13th!
www.avenueq.com

Avenue Q

By Claire Pienaar

What do you get when you combine a story that takes place on the wrong side of the tracks, a (literally) colorful cast of characters and some very crude and immature humor?

Nope, not Adult Swim. I’m talking about Avenue Q, a musical collaboration of puppets and humans and monsters alike.

Though it was initially confusing to distinguish between humans and puppets, the puppets soon had enough life to be actors on their own. The human puppeteers handled their inanimate counterparts very well, while showing identical expressions in their own faces and body language. Some characters did not wield puppets and instead interacted with the puppets as they would with each other.

Most of the performance was composed of comedy, a type that rings with honesty and lets people make light of their own moral flaws (maybe everyone is a little bit racist…sometimes…) Parts of the play were meant to cause the audience discomfort, including the gratuitous puppet sex scene, and Rod the Republican’s tune about his “girlfriend that lives in Canada”. However, the use of puppets is what made all of the near-blasphemy in the musical more acceptable.

Avenue Q has been running since 2003 and has been very popular among our generation. Since many teenagers in New York City have already seen the musical, bits of humor and lessons from the musical have influenced our culture. Never having seen the show before, I sat through it once and recognized almost half of the jokes as ones my friends have been telling me about for years.

Avenue Q is wonderful for teenagers and adults alike. The continuous humor and brutal honesty will keep you laughing and cringing throughout the entire show!