Street-Wise Puppets: Musical Meant Just for Adults Detours From the Conventional
By Michael Grossberg, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Apr. 6–Avenue Q has been called a Sesame Street for adults — and also a winner.
The unconventional puppet musical originated off-Broadway, moved to the Great White Way and picked up the 2004 Tony award for best musical.
The original production will soon reach its 2,000th performance.
After a detour to Las Vegas, the national tour of Avenue Q is traveling throughout the heartland and pausing in central Ohio: The show will open Tuesday in the Palace Theatre.
The two-act Avenue Q — suggested for mature audiences because of profanity, “puppet nudity” and puppet sex — revolves around young residents adjusting to life in New York.
“It’s been hard over the years for anyone to quickly explain what Avenue Q is,” director Jason Moore said.
“I do think ‘ Sesame Street for adults’ is a pretty quick moniker that helps people understand it.
“You could also describe it as children’s television on steroids, with South Park humor. I like to think of it as the musical with yuks about lives that suck.”
The central character is Princeton, a poor college graduate who moves to New York with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He and most of the other characters are puppets, operated by actors onstage.
As he settles into the only apartment he can afford, way out on Avenue Q, Princeton makes friends with (Sesame Street parodies) Trekkie Monster, Bear, Kate Monster and other neighbors who also are seeking happy relationships, good jobs and a “purpose.”
“It’s about people finding their way about New York City and in life,” said Moore, who talked to The Dispatch while taking a break from preparing Shrek: The Musical, which is to open next season on Broadway.
“The surprise is that you really start to care about characters who are essentially inanimate objects. That’s the big achievement of the piece.”
The nine performers speak and sing live, backed by a seven-piece touring orchestra.
But it gets more complicated: In a few big numbers, actors who play two or more puppet roles have both characters onstage simultaneously. One performer manipulates the puppet while the actor playing the role voices it from across the stage.
One of the three non-puppet characters is Christmas Eve, a Japanese-American therapist with one client.
She is played by central Ohio native Angela Ai, whose parents, Daphne and Yu-Kuang Ai, live in Westerville.
“She has a heart of gold, but there’s a language barrier,” Ai said. “She wants to get clients, but she doesn’t understand why she’s not getting them.
“She really cares about the people on Avenue Q . . . even though she thinks Trekkie Monster is a pervert.”
Christmas Eve is engaged to Brian, another human character played by the serendipitously named actor Cole Porter.
The other human character is former sitcom actor Gary Coleman, played by actress Carla Renata.
The challenge for the actors playing human characters is to interact with the puppets, Ai said.
When she first got the part three years ago, Ai practiced by placing a stuffed animal on her bed at home and singing to it.
“But it wasn’t the same,” she said.
Onstage, the puppets are inextricably linked to human beings, who share and shape their characters, she said.
And lyrics and dialogue that might be unacceptable coming from the mouths of humans seem more palatable when voiced by puppets.
Among the politically incorrect songs: Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist, It Sucks To Be Me, If You Were Gay, Schadenfreude and The Internet Is for Porn.
“If you heard somebody as a human saying, ‘The Internet is for porn’ or ‘Everyone is a little bit racist,’ ” Ai noted, “it’s not going to be as funny but also would be much more offensive.”
mgrossberg@dispatch.com
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Avenue Q
–Avenue Q will be presented at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. next Sunday in the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St. Tickets cost $22.50 to $74.50 at the Broadway Across America office, 10 W. Broad St.; the Ohio Theatre box office (614-469-0939); and www.broadwayacross america.com.
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