All-around fabulous performances and an excitingly innovative production design combine to make Wisteria Theater Company’s Avenue Q a musical-comedy must-see.
As its multitude of diehard fans already know, the 2004 Robert Lopez-Jeff Marx-Jeff Whitty Broadway smash imagines what might happen if Jim Henson’s Muppets started singing songs and teaching life lessons about adult topics like sexual orientation, racism, and Internet porn.
Add to this almost two-dozen melodious songs and some Sesame Street-style “instructional” video segments and you’ve got a thoroughly entertaining coming-of-age story chili-peppered with salty language and at least one scene of puppet-on-puppet sex.
Whitty’s Tony-winning book introduces us to a dapper young chap named Princeton (Connor Bullock manipulating and voicing a Muppets-inspired puppet), freshly graduated with a B.A. in English with no idea what to do with his life.
Fortunately for Princeton, his apartment hunting has led him from Avenue A to the far more affordable Avenue Q and a “For Rent” sign in a building supered by none other than washed-up (but then still alive and kicking) TV star Gary Coleman (a gender-bending Amber France as a 100% human Gary) and peopled among others by roommates Rod (Bullock and puppet) and Nicky (Cameron James Parker and puppet).
Other residents include live-in lovers Christmas Eve and Brian (Marcha Kia and Drew Maidment in puppet-free human mode), sweet young thing Kate Monster (Lexi Collins and puppet), and upstairs grouch Trekkie Monster (Parker again, puppet in hand).
In song after tuneful, clever song (music and lyrics by Lopez and Marx), we get to know these self-proclaimed losers-in-life up close and personal, along with a series of humorous life lessons taught in song and animated videos, à la Sesame Street, though with considerably saltier language and themes, ditties with titles like “The Internet Is For Porn,” “You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love),” and “Schadenfreude,” German for “watching a frat boy realize just what he put his dick in.”
Also figuring along the way are cabaret skank Lucy The Slut (Collins and puppet), a pair of Bad Idea Bears (Parker and Taylor Renée Castle holding a couple of cute-as-can-be stuffed animals) who delight in giving the worst possible advice, and Kate’s grouchy grammar school principal Mrs. Thistletwat (Castle and puppet).
Director Braydon Hade adheres savvily to the original Broadway concept of assigning multiple roles each to the show’s four black-clad puppeteering performers, making it clear that it’s the puppet who’s the real character regardless of which performer’s hand is inside. (In other words, Kate is Kate whether Collin’s hand is inside her or Castle’s when Collins is occupied elsewhere manipulating Lucy, though it remains Collins voicing both. Got that?)
Hade’s casting and directorial choices are equally spot-on.
Bullock has never been more winning than he is as Princeton and the Nocturne Theatre favorite is even more wonderful as the prickly, stuck-in-the-closet, impossibly-in-love Rod.
Collins is a sunny delight as Kate and a sultry siren as Lucy, her “There’s A Fine, Fine Line” proving a tear-inducing showstopper.
Parker is enormously endearing as the tender-hearted Nicky and a hilariously grouchy hoot as Trekkie, while Parker and Castle’s sweet-voiced but nasty-minded Bears never fail to amuse as does Castle’s wheezing battleaxe of a Mrs. Thistletwat.
As for the humans, Maidment’s slacker charmer Brian makes it three winning supporting turns in a row for this L.A. up-and-comer, big-voiced and bilingual Kia nails both Christmas Eve’s sardonic sass and her katakana accent, and France does the late great Gary Coleman proud with her good-natured take on Different Strokes’ iconic pint-sized smartaleck.
All of the above vocalize to perfection to prerecorded tracks under Nolan Monisbay’s expert music direction while executing Anasha Milton’s bouncy choreography, with Chess MacElvaine doing a bang-up job as puppet trainer.
Scenic/wardrobe designer Tanya Cyr merits snaps too for her imaginative costumes (both human and puppet) and much more, as do James G. Smith III for a lighting design that makes each and every saturated color pop and Joshua Collins for a crystal-clear sound design mix.
Still, what distinguishes this Avenue Q most from the ten other productions I’ve seen of the show is Hade’s game-changing rear-screen projection design, an ever-changing mix of brilliantly colorful computer-generated backdrops, assorted AI images (including some snaps of cleverly censored puppet porn), and Sesame Street-style videos that make seeing this particular Avenue Q akin to experiencing an animated Pixar feature film live and in person.
Perhaps even more importantly, Wisteria Theater Company’s Avenue Q marks the arrival of an exciting new musical theater company and a terrifically welcoming new theatrical venue with abundant free parking.
Avenue Q is produced for Wisteria Theater by Renée Wylder. Thomas Adoue Polk and Armie Jane Pascual are swings. Carter Haugen is standby for Gary Coleman.
Avenue Q was the very first show I saw on Broadway back in March of 2004 and I’ve been a huge fan ever since, jumping at just about any chance to see it staged closer to home.
Wisteria Theater Company’s Avenue Q is easily the most innovative of the eleven I’ve now seen and an ideal (re)introduction to this irresistible charmer of a musical.
Wisteria Theater, 7061 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood. Through March 2. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 3:00.
www.wisteriatheater.com
–Steven Stanley
February 8, 2025
Tags: Jeff Marx, Jeff Whitty, Los Angeles Theater Review, Robert Lopez, Wisteria Theater Company