Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay
Tues 14 June
words: AMY PAY
After five years of sitting firmly on London’s stage listings, Avenue Q, perhaps the naughtiest musical of the decade (complete with a strict parental advisory warning), has embarked on its debut UK tour. The Wales Millennium Centre played host to the potty-mouthed puppets as they sang away their misery caused by failing at life. The story follows recent graduate Princeton as he attempts to find his purpose on earth, though he soon realises that neither he nor his loser neighbours know where they stand. This satirical {Sesame Street} parody turns modern hardships into hilarious explorations of our hopelessness and shared non-PC nature via crude snigger-inducing songs.
The unusual combination of human characters and undisguised-human-controlled puppets created a complex task for the actors, but this didn’t seem to trouble the cast one bit. Human characters interacted seamlessly with their furry friends, something which appeared instantly genuine. A number of the actors held even more challenging roles; some of them had multiple puppets to master, meaning that they had to carry off at least two different voices. Rachel Jerram did so convincingly, effortlessly leaping between the squeaky high-pitched charms of Kate Monster and the husky provocative jests of Lucy The Slut. Chris Thatcher, puppeteer of one of the Bad Idea Bears (two teddies of temptation) and porn-obsessed Trekkie Monster, pulled cartoony faces while speaking. His comical looks juxtaposed the puppets’ filthy lines, giving them an innocent spin. The score was strengthened by video clips that illustrated the characters’ thought processes, the majority of which involved sex jokes and dirty word play narrated by harmless children’s TV style voiceovers. Judging by the roars of laughter, the layers of cynicism and self-loathing and the outrageously hilarious matter-of-fact approaches towards typically hush-hush topics will leave a lasting smile in the minds of those who saw the show, either that or a feeling of being deeply offended!