West End Wonderment

Meant to mention that we went to see Avenue Q at the Noel Coward Theatre on Tuesday evening, and a FANTASTIC time was had by all. It's one of the most entertaining shows I've seen in a long time, and the audience provided a whole extra level of entertainment to boot.

If you haven't heard of it, it's a Sesame Street style presentation telling the story of the inhabitants of Avenue Q in New York - there are human characters interacting with puppets, each of which is visibly 'performed' by the performers on whose hands they perch. Primarily the story of Princeton and his quest for a purpose in life, along the way it takes in repressed Republican Rod, the love story of Brian and his fiancée Christmas Eve, the porn-fixation of Trekkie Monster, and the evil manipulations of the Bad Idea Bears. (Don't worry - it all makes sense when you see it.)

The songs run the range from typical (but very well done) musical standards like There's a fine fine line (between love and a waste of time) to the more story-specific Everyone's a little bit racist and The more you ruv someone (the more you want to kill them).

The audience was very varied (and also the most vocally enthusiastic crowd I've seen in the west end in a very long time). The gays were out in force, as were a lot of young American women for some reason, plus odd individuals, like the man who sat next to me and started the evening my loudly sniffing his underarms (nice) and the family behind us who over-analysed everything and whose father's comment at the final curtain was "Well that was jolly entertaining."

Highly recommended. And unless you're a straight man or a lesbian, I defy you not to fall a little bit in love with the lead male performer. I know we did.

Posted on June 22, 2006 07:48 AM

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