Avenue Q
Annie Russel Theater, Winter Park FL
Avenue Q
Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx
Book by Jeff Whitty
Directed by Timothy Williams
Musical Direction by Jason M Baily
Puppetry Direction by Rebekah Lane
Choreography by Parker King
Starring Colin Flaumenhaft, Analise Cutter, Andrew Stewart, and Chase Walker
At Rollins College
My rule of thumb is: “On stage, puppets can do ANYTHING.” Witness this wild comedy: Princeton and Kate Monster (Flaumenhaft and Cutter) review every position ins Kama Sutra as this proper Winter Park audience laughs until it cries. And when these lost souls aren’t making felt, they explored the difficulty of surviving in the postmodern big city. Princeton brings his fresh Bachelor of Arts ticket to New York where it qualifies him for temp work and poverty. He ends upon Avenue Q, a place so far outside of Alphabet City there’s a whole scrabble board of letters between them. Gary Coleman (Faith Artis) rents him a place, and he promptly ends up to his neck in debt and loneliness. He takes up with Kate Monster (Cutter). While this is technically sleeping outside to his felt color, they enter into a rocky relation disturbed by Lucy the Slut (Kristen Edwards) and the bad Idea Bears (Margot Cramer and Maddie Crump). Ultimately the couple is saved by Trekkie Monster’s (Evan Munger) priceless porn collection, and as he says: “ In volatile market, only stable investment is porn!)
If “Avenue Q” funny, snotty and packed with good music including sing-a-longs like “It Sucks to Be Me,” “If You Were Gay” and “My Girlfriend Lives in Canada.” There’s a large orchestra in the pit tonight, and I kept waiting for someone to fall into that manhole cover of the musical stage, but it never happens. The gags came thing a and fast, but the story kept a heart of reality inside of it: We are all lonely, you’ll never be economically safe, as so you do what you can to get thought each day and make the best of it. Sure, it’s over the top and out to m make point about acceptance and community, but don’t mind that. Just be prepare for sex drugs and rock and roll, or at least a felt warped parody of all these favorite vices.
