A muppet show that's far away from 'Sesame Street'

It features fluffy puppets, catchy songs and adorable kids' TV archetypes, but Avenue Q deals with adult issues in a challenging and entertaining way, writes JOE GRIFFIN

A FUNNY THING happens when you interview the cast of Avenue Q. At first it seems odd that each of them is sitting there with their puppet characters on their laps. They sometimes nod their heads at the same time as their puppet characters, occasionally stroke them like pets, and when they’re explaining their voice methods the puppets come alive and move their mouths in synch. Then, after a few minutes, you find yourself making eye-contact with the puppets and not the actors, even moving the microphone to the foam mouths and not the human ones.

“It’s something to do with the puppet’s huge eyes that pull your attention in,” says Nigel Plaskitt, a puppeteer and consultant for the show. “The characters in Disney have big eyes too. It’s a natural human thing to look at eyes.”

Avenue Q began as an off-Broadway play in 2003, before graduating to Broadway, where it won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score, and then travelled to London’s West End, where it earned a Lawrence Olivier Award nomination for Best New Musical.

Following journeys of self-discovery for a new graduate, a kindergarten teacher and two best friends (who might be more than friends), the show places the puppets into adult situations and gives musical life lessons, discussing such contentious topics as internet porn, homosexuality, homelessness and racism. There’s even a somewhat explicit moment that will change how you view kids’ TV puppets for good.

It’s populated by adorable kids’ TV archetypes; for example, the depraved Trekkie Monster appears to be a nod to Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, complete with equally voracious (but very different) appetites.

“When it started off-Broadway it was literally only meant to be a TV series,” says staff director and cast member Matthew J Henry. “Somewhere along the way someone said that it could be a musical. The avenue – for want of a better word – to get it on TV had closed. Then [writer] Jeff Whitty came on board. [Songwriters] Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx had a collection of songs and no plot, so Jeff brought it all together and it evolved from there.”

Avenue Q is interesting in that the actors are also puppeteers, performing alongside their puppets in full view. Plaskitt – who has worked with Spitting Image and the Muppets – coaches the actors’ puppet work. “They play the role alongside them,” he explains. “So it’s as if they’re part of the whole role. Normally you wouldn’t see the puppeteers. It’s a fine line between complementing the puppets and overshadowing them. They have to support the puppet. It’s my job to get them to put as much expression into the puppets as possible.”

“I’ve been doing it for a few years now, but at the start it was a really big challenge,” says Chris Thatcher, who plays Trekkie Monster. “Now I like to think it’s clicked in. You have to keep checking yourself – you can always improve. But that’s the whole thing: it’s a challenge.”

Because the show has been running for almost a decade, and because many of the characters were inspired by Muppets, there seems to be a template of how they’re played.

“I didn’t create this role – quite a few actors have played it before me,” says Sam Lupton, who plays the naive graduate, Princeton, and the closet-case, Rod. “So you’d be silly not to take influence from what was there before.”

“It’s dictated by what the show is influenced by – Sesame Street and the Muppets,” says Katharine Moraz, who plays Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut. “Rod and Nicky are very much a close imitation of Bert and Ernie, so you sometimes have a nod to some of the voices. Characters like Princeton and Kate are young and they have a voice to suggest that they’re learning all the time. Lucy the Slut is more worldly wise so you want to find that vocally – she’s low and womanly and not like a young lady.”

With song titles including Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist and The Internet is for Porn, Avenue Q delights in scandalising and challenging its audience. But the show is generally big-hearted and compassionate. It has fun at the expense of its ethnic, poor and gay characters, but ultimately sympathises with them and makes an argument for greater understanding. Thankfully, the life-lessons are peppered generously with catchy songs, witty one-liners and filthy jokes.

“When I saw it before joining the cast, I loved it because it was so funny,” says Moraz, “But when you get closer to it you find there’s more to it: it’s racy and sordid, but actually it deals with issues that everyone goes through. At the heart it’s quite truthful and honest.”

“The reason they use puppets is because they allow you to be more honest without worrying about being seen as controversial,” says Lupton. “If this was done with humans without songs or puppets it would be a more shocking play, but because it’s done with puppets, that puts a mask over it and allows you to deal with the issues more comfortably.”

Avenue Q is at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre from April 3rd to 7th