Hit hits the road
Touring production of Broadway success Avenue Q arrives in Ottawa
Avenue Q: Expect energy and intensity
Whenever I get tasked with an article about one of the touring Broadway productions, it’s always a bit of a headache. What is there left to say about Avenue Q? Unless you’ve been living under a rock with poor television reception, in an area with a bylaw against joy, you’ll have heard about this high-energy, high-camp, faux-Sesame Street sensation. It won a fistful of well-deserved Tony awards in 2004.
The premise is a simple one: a disillusioned young college graduate ends up living in New York in an “affordable” neighbourhood full of loveable weirdos whose lives are not exactly panning out the way they wanted. The grit and scrabble of everyday life in the city is made alien and ironic by most of the actors using Muppet-style puppet torsos as surrogates, singing about their drinking and love of pornography through their fixed, sunny expressions.
This poses something of a challenge in expression, explained actor Kerri Brackin: “One of the main things that initially distinguishes characters in the show, apart from the puppets, are the distinct voices of each one.” All the actors have to learn how to perform not only through their own bodies, but through the substitute bodies of the puppets they control. Brackin herself plays two characters, “a crabby old kindergarten teacher named Mrs. T. and the girl half of the Bad Idea Bears.” (The Bears are the most over-the-top representation of the pervasive irony of the show: a couple of sweet childhood teddy bears who encourage the characters to indulge all their worst vices through syrupy, high-pitched cheerleading.)
According to Brackin, this touring production features a cast somewhat younger than the original Broadway production that many readers will already be familiar with, so you can expect a more intense and energetic show. “It’s a great group of people,” she says rapturously. “They make us look great on stage.”
As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – June 24, 2010
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/stage/stage.aspx?iIDArticle=20038
