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Laughs about life on 'Avenue Q'

Kelly Jane Torrance
November 30, 2007

Princeton and Robert McClure (below) and Kate Monster and Kelli Sawyer (below left) populate "Avenue Q" at the National Theatre through Dec. 9.

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"This is real life," Princeton (Robert McClure) says, with a sense of wonder, early on in "Avenue Q." It's an apt line: Perhaps no musical has captured the truth of contemporary life as well as "Avenue Q." In such numbers as "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?" and "The Internet Is for Porn," our conflicts with race, technology, work and even the meaning of life are laid bare on the stage.

Never mind that this "real life" is presented to us by a cast of adorable puppets that owe more than a little to the classic children's series "Sesame Street."

"Avenue Q" opened at the Vineyard Theatre off-Broadway in March 2003 and moved four months later to Broadway, where it's still running. The adult-themed puppet musical, with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty, overthrew favorite "Wicked" to win the Tony Award for best musical. It picked up two other top awards as well, best book and best original score.

The score isn't actually that original, and in the national touring company production now at the National Theatre until Dec. 9, the very small group of musicians playing it doesn't even sound live. But the music isn't really the point in this musical. The "Sesame Street"-influenced score serves as a cozily familiar backdrop for song after song of jaw-dropping comedy.

Princeton is the newcomer to Avenue Q (he started at Avenue A and stopped when he finally found a place he could afford). The recent graduate spends the two-hour running time looking for his purpose in life, with a little help from his new friends. They include roommates Rod (also Mr. McClure) and Nicky (David Benoit), who bear more than a passing resemblance to "Sesame's" Bert and Ernie.

Rod's a Republican, closeted homosexual investment banker pining away for his straight slacker roommate. Kate Monster (Kelli Sawyer), a furry kindergarten assistant, soon falls in love with Princeton. She gets advice from the three nonpuppeted cast members: comedian Brian (Cole Porter), his fiancee Christmas Eve (Angela Ai, in a hilariously politically incorrect performance of a Japanese therapist) and the superintendent, former child star Gary Coleman (played pitch-perfectly by a woman, Carla Renata).

The cast members emote along with their puppets, so audiences get twice the bang for their buck. And those puppets, surprisingly, have a lot of expression. Many of the minds and puppeteers behind the musical worked on "Sesame Street," and the puppets look as good as anything you'll see there. Mr. McClure is particularly adept at handling his.

He's also a very talented singer, giving very different voices to two characters. Miss Sawyer isn't quite as good at handling her puppets (she also plays Kate's rival, Lucy the Slut), but her strong, gloriously cute voice more than makes up for it. Mr. Benoit also plays a variety of characters with aplomb. One of them is a Bad Idea Bear, part of a pair who are too cute to resist, even as they get Kate drunk enough to have a one-night stand and miss a big opportunity at work. The other bear is played by Minglie Chen, who gracefully moves her way through the production.

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