For my birthday this year my parents got me tickets to see Avenue Q. Now the whole day was a fun-filled-fest in itself - partly because so much went wrong. But you'll have to wait for that story. Today is just about the theatre part.
The show is at the Noël Coward Theatre, which used to be called The Albery but I'd never been to either before, and it's a wonderful theatre. It's cosy without being cramped. The staff are my heros because due to various delays we ended up walking into the building just after they'd shut the doors - a manager grabbed an usherette who ran us into the theatre so we ended up sitting down just as the curtain rose. It's only a small thing from them but it meant the world to us. The staff selling goodies in the interval were polite and friendly (and the goodies themselves were probably the best value I've ever seen at a London theatre), I like the staff here. So we have a nice building, nice staff, what about the show?
Wow! I've seen some fairly involved West End shows, in fact I've probably seen some of the most complex shows put on, but this still managed to impress me. The cast do an amazing job with the four puppeteers taking on at least two roles each. The fact that you have people holding down conversations with themselves from opposite ends of the stage without cringing for the cast is incredible. The fact that the script even allows a live show to do that is pretty amazing in itself!
But for all the technical prowess of the show, and for all the good performances the thing I suspect I'll remember most about this show is the cast themselves. I've never seen a show where the cast looked so happy. They obviously love the songs even after all these shows - this wasn't the usual collection of smiles (both stuck on and genuine) there was beaming! Their enthusiasm was infectious.
The whole show just sucks you back into your childhood and the kids on the stage are having such fun you can't help yourself. A whole roomful of adults forget they grew up and just have fun. In best review style - if you see one show this year, make sure it's Avenue Q.