September 09, 2005
'Avenue Q' tips traditional puppetry toward edgy adult themes
By Jerry Fink

LAS VEGAS SUN

• What: "Avenue Q."
• Where: Wynn Las Vegas Avenue Q Theatre.
• Rating (out of five stars): *****

Puppetry has come a long way since Punch and Judy began slapping each other around London in the 1600s.

Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppet Charlie McCarthy were popular on the radio and in the movies in the '30s and '40s.

Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney amused children and adults alike on radio and television in the '50s and '60s.

Jimmy Nelson and Danny O'Day were hot on TV in the '60s.

In my formative years I wouldn't miss "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" or, of course, "Howdy Doody."

Then "Sesame Street" and the Muppets came along and changed the puppet world forever, with their fuzzy caricatures that bore no resemblance to anything human. And now we have "Avenue Q."

This ain't Kukla, Fran and Ollie, folks.

And the subjects the denizens of the avenue tackle aren't the alphabet, etiquette and good grooming.

This is an adult show that features nudity and onstage sexual activity (between puppets) and adult language.

And the topics are not those that would interest children -- surviving and finding your purpose in life.

Writers Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty have created a wonderful comedy with serious underlying messages that have been appealing to fans since it opened off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in March 2003.

After moving to Broadway it won three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score of a Musical and Best Book of a Musical.

The story follows the lives of several residents of a low-income neighborhood in New York City who are struggling to better themselves.

Only three of the residents are human -- Brian (played by Cole Porter), an aspiring standup comedian, and his Asian girlfriend Christmas Eve (Natalie Gray) and Gary Coleman (Tonya Dixon), the former child star who is now a building superintendent in a row of low-rent homes turned into apartments.

The cast of puppets include Princeton, a recent college graduate looking for work; Kate Monster (a teaching assistant who wants to start a school exclusively for Monsters); Trekkie Monster (a porn-obsessed version of "Sesame Street's Cookie Monster); Lucy Slut; and Nicky and and his gay roommate, Rod.

Each role in the show has two cast members so who you will see playing will vary on different nights.

The night I attended included Porter, Dixon, Gray, Bryan O'Malley, Rita Dolphin and original Broadway cast members John Tartaglia (the puppeteer for Princeton and Nicky) and Rick Lyon (Rod, Trekkie Monster and others).

It's tough to select a standout among this troupe. All did a superb job.

One member of the show worthy of accolades is never seen -- set designer Anna Louzios, who created a simple stage setting that includes a row of tenements that can become a nightclub or the top of the Empire State Building.

If you see a similarity between the puppets of "Avenue Q" and those of "Sesame Street," it's no coincidence.

Lyon was with "Sesame Street" for 15 years.

He created the puppets for "Avenue Q" and has been with the creators of the show since its inception in 1999.

The show opens with "It Sucks to be Me," a hilarious number topped only by "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist."

Along the way the audience becomes deeply involved in the various storylines the are threaded through the show -- the budding relationship between Princeton and Kate; Nicky dealing with his homosexuality; Nicky becoming homeless.

We are exposed to various human traits, not all of them pretty, such as those expressed in the song "Little Bit Racist."

And "Schadenfreude" -- a word that is flashed on huge TV screens in the best of "Sesame Street" traditions. Schadenfreude is German for "happiness at the misfortune of others."

But they are handled in a humorous way so as not to offend anyone's sensibilities.

The human mind is amazing. We forget that the characters are puppets, even though there is no attempt to hide the puppeteers, who walk around the stage with the puppets on their arms.

We watch the facial expressions and the physical movements of the puppeteers and our mind automatically transposes them to the puppet -- so in essence the puppet and the puppeteer become one.

"Avenue Q" should find a huge following in Vegas.

It is a great alternative to the Cirque du Soleil productions, low-keyed, simple, funny.

Even Howdy Doody would have enjoyed it. We forget that the characters are puppets, even though there is no attempt to hide the puppeteers, who walk around the stage with the puppets on their arms.