You’ll have heard of Avenue Q before, of course, the delinquent boozy stepchild of Sesame Street.
In a supremely confident production, Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company have absolutely nailed 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, and so the some of the main preoccupations are particularly early-millennium – closeted gay friends, the new era of the Internet – although this production neatly slots in some updated Canada-centric gags that will elicit 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 Nick Fontaine and Selina Wong, both of whom frequently steal what’s a boisterous, funny and bold show. (We’re also ever so slightly in love with Jeremy Crittenden.)
Performed on Monday 29 December 2014 at Granville Island Stage in Vancouver.