Avenue Q is a series of one-liners that are set to "Sesame Street" style
musical numbers and that ultimately become tedious
and repetitive. Because a number of these jokes are hysterically funny, "Avenue Q" is a worthwhile and
pleasant evening at the theater provided you have sufficient familiarity with "Sesame Street' to get the jokes and appreciate the characterizations. Grown up puppets, accompanied
on stage by their human counterparts, live in a Muppet Bizarro-world on Avenue Q. The Bert-character is a
closet gay; Miss Piggy's character (the names have all been changed to protect the innocent) is a slut. Cookie Monster (Chucky Monster) is now obsessed with pornography rather
than cookies. And Avenue Q is all protectively watched over by landlord, Gary Coleman, played by a woman. The opening number, "It Sucks
to Be Me," sets the stage. Princeton (Ernie) sings to Rod (Bert), "You do such anal things like ironing your underwear." Later, the ensemble
sings, "We're all a Little Bit Racist," with the endearing and memorable lyric: "If we could all admit
we're a little bit racist even though we know it's wrong, maybe it would help us all get along." Chucky Monster asks in another song, "Why do you think the Internet was born? For porn,
porn, porn!" As Rod decides to come out of the closet, and as a love story between Kate Monster and human neighbor Brian is developing, they
sing "There's a fine, fine line between love and a waste of time."
"Avenue Q" is a single,
well-executed gimmick in two-acts. It's fun and entertaining, but
there are better choices on Broadway.
Jack Myers Entertainment Report's entertainment rating system is based on a
maximum of five jacks and a minimum of zero jacks. 0 = awful; 1 = pretty bad; 2 = okay but don't go out of your way to see it; 3 = reasonably good but not special; 4 = very
good and worth paying attention to; 5 = exceptional. Opinions are based on my own likes, dislikes and preferences.
