Review: Avenue Q at Milton
Keynes Theatre – Tuesday 10th September
Back for a second run
at Milton Keynes Theatre this puppet show could initially be mistaken for the
muppets. But this is certainly not the Sesame Street that you’d want your children
to watch any time soon.
The story follows
Princeton who is a fresh-faced English graduate growing up and trying to find
his purpose in life – a life of humans, puppets and some rather offensive songs
which you can’t help but start singing along with. Who knew there would be a five
minute song about what the internet is actually used for?
Intermixing puppet
characters and human characters together on stage as if they co-exist in the
real world worked really well. Initially I thought I would pay more attention to
the puppeteers instead of the puppets but as the show went on the puppets stole
the show with their great facial expressions that portrayed their feelings and
intricate movements progressing the story (although some of these movements are
a bit more risqué than others).
The set remains pretty
much the same throughout – the only changes coming from different ‘doors’
opening to indicate a different setting and changes in lighting to portray a
change of mood or pace. I feel this had mixed success as when some of the doors
opened, they were quite small and it was quite hard to see what was behind each
door.
The small cast were
fantastic – many of them operating more than one puppet and seamlessly switched
between each character making it appear there were more cast members than there
actually were. Stand out character for me had to be Trekkie Monster with his
crude songs and matching actions.
Avenue Q is at Milton
Keynes Theatre until Saturday 14th September.
Tickets available
from https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/avenue-q/milton-keynes-theatre
No comments:
Post a Comment