Review: Avenue Q is full of laughs and heart on Leamington stage

I caught the last night of the musical, Avenue Q at the Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa, but I wish I’d caught the first. And the second. And the third. All of them.

It is a wonderfully upbeat, optimistic, fun-filled, original musical. And it comes with Muppet-like puppets. But this show is decidedly adult in some of its action.

Avenue Q has an interesting, if tricky, theme, that happiness relies on luck and goodwill and fellowship, and is measured in what we do for others as much as in what we do for ourselves.

Princeton (Richard Baldwin) arrives on Avenue Q, a downbeat part of New York. He comes armed with a BA in English and not much else. What he wants most of all is to find his Purpose in life. This provides the narrative thread throughout the show. But life doesn’t give up its secrets so easily.

The run-down tenement is populated by a host of larger-than-life characters. There’s Gary Coleman (Solomon Smith), the former celebrity, based on the real Gary Coleman. There’s Brian (Ashley Adam), a wannabe comedian, and Christmas Eve (Simone Campbell), a Japanese therapist with no clients. Then there’s Rod, the closet gay Republican with OCD who cannot bring himself to admit he is in love with Nicky (Dan Parkes). Situated in his room above them all and devoted to watching porn all day is the reclusive Trekkie Monster (John Booth), a bad guy who turns out to be good. In fact all the bad guys turn out to be good in the end. First there is Lucy The Slut (Georgie Wood) who seduces poor Princeton away from his ‘purpose’ and who eventually becomes a born-again Christian, and the two Bad Ideas Bears (Amie Bradley and Rebecca Bradley) who whisper temptation in everyone’s ears. And at the centre of this weird and wacky melange is Kate Monster (Liv Withey), a teaching assistant, with whom Princeton falls in love. She hates her job and wants to start her own ‘Monstersori’ school, especially for monsters.

Most of the characters are Muppet-like puppets, played visibly onstage alongside their puppeteers. This gives the show a ‘real life’ feel. It pokes fun at big issues such as racism, pornography and homophobia, and in doing so brings them down a peg, showing them up as absurdities. The titles of some of the songs say it all: It Sucks To Be Me; Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist; You Can Be as Loud as You Want When You're Makin' Love; and There’s a Fine, Fine Line.

This being a musical there's a good heart clearly visible beneath the satire. There’s some brilliant acting and wonderful singing and great catchy tunes. The musical and stage direction are superb. I couldn’t single out anyone for special mention as they were all great. But one person does deserve mention, Oli Williams, who was due to star in the show before it was cancelled by Covid. He tragically died in a car accident, and the show was dedicated to his memory and a charity set up in his name, Olibob Arts Foundation.

Avenue Q ran from September 15 to 17. Visit royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk for details of future shows at the venue.