Musical - Avenue Q

Reviews, By DanM82, 2nd June, 2009

If you haven’t heard by now, Avenue Q has hit Australian shores. From its opening days at the Vineyard Theatre and receiving rave reviews, the show re-opened on Broadway at the Golden Theatre in 2003. Since then Avenue Q has scooped award after award including the 2003 Lucielle Lotrel Award for Outstanding New Music and 3 of the prestigious Tony Awards including Best Musical in 2004.

Two years later Avenue Q travelled across the ocean to the UK and opened in London’s West End and brought about the re-opening of the Noel Coward Theatre where it ran until the end of March in 2009.

Now Australian audiences are set to be amazed, astounded and tickled furry by the hilarious antics of the characters of the show. There is no topic that they won’t have a dig at including racism, internet porn, homelessness and sexual identity.

Much to the chagrin of some audience members, none of the original US or UK cast are part of the Australian show. But that doesn’t detract from the performance in any way as the Australian cast have taken the show and made it their own. The cast features the talents of Michala Banas of McLeod’s Daughters fame and Mitchell Butel who has done so much work in musical theatre that you can’t pick out the highlights as they all shine bright. There’s also Natalie Alexopoulos how has starred in the Japanese tour of We Will Rock You and the recent revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There is not one lacklustre moment throughout the two hour show. The stage is set, the notes perfect and the humor set to tickle the funny bone. The show follows the story of Princeton, a fresh faced college graduate and his interaction with his neighbors who include Brian, the out of work comedian and his therapist fiancé Christmas Eve. There’s Nicky who is the lay about straight boy and his housemate Rod, who is a republican investment banker who is not a “closeted homowhatever”. Then there’s the super-intendent Gary Coleman … yes, that Gary Coleman.

The other notable character is Princeton’s sweet, but foul mouthed, love interest Kate Monster. There are, of course, other characters but we don’t want to give away the secrets of the show.

Avenue Q is new, it’s fresh and it’s going to wow audiences everywhere around Australia. The winner of 2004 Tony Award for Best New Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, after watching scene one act one, you know that the show deserves the awards. After seeing the show we know two things… one to believe the hype and two … the internet is for porn!

Avenue Q is currently playing at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne , tickets available through Ticketek and soundtrack out now through Sony Music.

To join Same Same at Melbourne’s official opening night of Avenue Q, click here.