It's not a musical I'd take my mum to, but I enjoyed it very much
-- A friend
Hmm... with all this renovation going on, I haven't had much time to blog about recent theatre performances we've been to even though we've been to quite a few. Let's start with the one I still remember vividly. We were quite intrigued by the musical even though we did not know much about it except that it was rather controversial unconventional. We planned to see it in summer but something didn't work out. Then Simon said he was coming to London so we had to provide some entertainment and Avenue Q seemed like a good idea. Not really knowing what to expect, off we went. And if you want to know my opinion - it's all in the epigraph above.
When we left the theatre, the guys said the musical is about sex. No, it isn't. Well, okay sex is there, but if you don't concentrate on it, there are lots of other things. I'd say the musical is about everything. About all of us. The very-very first piece of text we were given was
"What do you do with a B.A. in English,
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree."
Precious! (and very close to me and quite a few of my friends at this stage of our lives :) And that was just the beginning! Just listen to the titles:
"it sucks to be me",
"everyone's a little bit racist",
"i wish I could go back to college" (life was so simple back then!),
"internet is for porn" (Normal people don't sit at home and look at porn on the internet -- Ohhhh? You have no idea ... But Kate, what do you think they do *afterwards*?)
"schadenfreude" (What's that, some kinda Nazi word? -- Yup! It's German for "happiness at the misfortune of others!" -- "Happiness at the misfortune of others." That *is* German! ... you can't imagine how funny was watching this with two germans sitting next to me!)
"there's a fine, fine line" (between love and a waste of time.)
"for now" (Maybe you'll never find your purpose. -- Lots of people don't. -- But then I don't know why I'm even alive! -- Well, who does, really?... it's only for now... Swine Flu (the original version had "George Bush" apparently)
I can go on and on and on but there's no point. Find the texts on youtube or google the lyrics, sit back and enjoy. I am sure you will find find at least a few songs about yourself and perhaps it will make you feel a little bit happier.
I should say the point of the musical is not its singing component (like phantom). Indeed, even though, the songs varied from foolish (such as "I am not wearing underwear today") to fascinatingly beautiful ("there's a fine fine line"), most belonged to the first category so did not require strong voices. And we didn't see many of those. With the notable exception of Cassidy Jenson, who played Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut and sung both of them amazingly (and differently!)
As for the acting... This was another surprise. This isn't a conventional piece of acting. Most of the actors are...puppets. But, and I think this was a very clever decision, during the performance you see both the puppets and their "owners". Moreover, the owners behave in the same ways as their characters. For example, if Kate the Slut is annoyed and sharply turns left, so does Cassidy Jenson. And this is done so profesionaly and harmoniously, that you quickly believe that puppets are alive and have their own emotions. This is perhaps hard to imagine until you've seen it but it's definitely worth seeing at least once, although I suspect that another puppet show would be much less exciting.
So, all in all, if you've never seen a puppet show before, I'd strongly recommend watching Avenue Q live; if you have - then at least find it on youtube. Probably it's not a musical you'll want to re-watch live again, as it's not about acting or singing. However, do listen to the words and you are bound to get hooked on at least some of the songs and listen to them again and again (I must confess that my first addiction was "the internet is for porn").
A few links to make your life easier: synopsis, youtube videos and lyrics.
Ah yes, final note - don't take it too close to your heart, okay?
