This musical’s been running in London for about eight months now, I think, since crossing the Atlantic. As long-time readers of the blog may recall, I have an aversion to musicals, though this has been rather diluted by positive experiences in recent times…

…and Avenue Q was another good musical. Touted as South Park meets Sesame Street, it’s the frankly silly tale of a puppet called Princeton moving onto the titular (stop that, it’s a real word) street, where he meets other puppets such as Kate Monster and the Bad Idea Bears (their motto: “More drinks! More fun! Yaaaay!”), and humans including Gary Coleman (yes, he of Diff’rent Strokes fame, though not played by the real chap). And that’s pretty much it in terms of plot, really.

Which isn’t a problem at all, it rolls along cheerfully with songs called ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist Sometimes’ and ‘The Internet Is For Porn’,and a lot of jokes, and even the odd dance number, not to mention a frankly torrid bedroom scene featuring two of the puppets. It’s a lot of fun, and technically a hell of an achievement as well – the puppeteers are also the voice performers, with several of them playing multiple characters, which sometimes means that there are scenes where they’re having conversations with themselves, but this just makes it all the more impressive, to my mind.

The songs are amusing, and they’re well sung, and the interaction between the characters and puppeteers alike is frequently very funny indeed (once or twice I think they were laughing themselves).They’re currently running a weeknight deal on tickets for the show, with prices as low as £10. We had these tickets, and they bumped us up to the Stalls, which meant we had a great view, probably one that should have cost three times as much, and who’s to say that isn’t likely to happen to you? Could well be the case, and certainly worth the gamble, I’d say.

In case it isn’t clear yet, Avenue Q is a good night out, and I highly recommend it.