Avenue Q
Gielgud
Death of Long Pig
Finborough
It opened in 2006. The critics hated it. Two years later it was still running, but with audiences in decline last autumn Cameron Mackintosh announced its closure, which prompted a huge box-office surge. In the spring it was finally replaced by Calendar Girls but Avenue Q has boomeranged straight back into the West End. So what is it? I vaguely expected some schmaltzy Muppet Show spin-off but this is a more complex and unexpected creature. We’re in New York. On stage we see puppets whose figures are being manipulated by actors who ventriloquise a bit, although you can still see their lips move. That shouldn’t work but never mind. The characters are all adults but the rhyme schemes, the melodies and the upbeat musical texture is drawn from kids’ TV, and this sugary idiom is applied to the tribulations of professional life in the big bad city.
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