‘Avenue Q’ musical review: The delinquent stepchild of ‘Sesame Street’

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You’ll have heard of Avenue Q before, of course; the delinquent boozy stepchild of Sesame Street from the co-creator of Book of Mormon.

Following five years in London’s West End, this supremely confident production (in Brighton all this week) absolutely nails the energetic perkiness and gawsh-darned American-ness that’s required to make Avenue Q work.

One of the major draws of this show is that it’s much more than a one-joke concept: it’s not simply about cute puppets swearing and having great sex (well, it is about that a bit). While there is great fun to be had with songs like ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist’ and ‘Schadenfreude’, there are deeper concepts to be investigated, such as acceptance of different cultures, the realisation that not every day is going to be brilliant, and even segregation. Through this, the show earns the comparison to Sesame Street: there are actually profound lessons to be taught here, many of them somewhat moving, all brought to you by the letter “Q”.

It is true that the script betrays signs of the era in which it was originally stitched together – hello, Titanic and Judge Judy references – and so do some of the main preoccupations are particularly early-millennium – closeted gay friends, the new era of the Internet – although this production neatly slots in a David Cameron gag that elicits a cheer of recognition.

It’s misleading to pick out any particular performances in a show where the ensemble and leads are as focused and confident as each other, but we suspect a lot of the praise can be delivered to the doors of Stephen Arden and Sarah Harlington, both of whom frequently steal what’s a boisterous, funny and bold show.

Performed on Wednesday 23 September 2015 at Brighton Dome.

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