“Avenue Q” marries naughty and nice
One of the classic pictures of young adulthood in America is a group of 20-something-year-old friends struggling to find jobs and scrape by in New York City. Now, while also classic, that’s a pretty average scene; there have been countless books and movies on the topic.
However, if you want a humorous and unexpected twist on that scene, then you should definitely check out the puppets who will be representing those NYC friends in the Chattanooga Theatre Centre’s production of the musical comedy “Avenue Q”, which opens Friday evening at 8 p.m.
“Avenue Q”, which was created by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, with a book by Jeff Whitty, first opened in Broadway in 2003. The show itself is R-rated because the puppets deal with some adult subject matter, as they are young adults in the big city. The production follows recent college graduate Princeton and the people he meets (Kate, Lucy, and Trekkie, to name a few) while living in a well-worn apartment a bit far out on Avenue Q.
The CTC’s production is directed by Scott Dunlap, who has experience working with puppets as Youth Theatre Director at the Theatre Centre. However, he said this show is a whole new take on the use of puppets in theater.
“In youth theater, most of our puppets are to represent animals or something like that, and they don’t do a lot of talking, in the same sense. At least not this extensively. This show, every single moment has a puppet in it,” explained Dunlap.
“You also have adults in the show who represent adult humans who live on the street, like ‘Sesame Street’ had Maria and Bob, and those characters are an element of it, too. But every second has a puppet involved, so it’s been really interesting.”
The original concept of “Avenue Q” was actually to be television show that would mirror “Sesame Street” but would essentially be for grownups; Dunlap said the production’s source material comes from “Sesame Street”, “Mr. Rogers”, and “The Electric Company”. He also explained that the element of children’s theater is still evident in “Avenue Q”, regardless of the subject matter, which is something that’s helped him to really connect with this show.
The Theatre Centre’s cast for this production is made up of 12 people; however, Dunlap said there will be about 24 puppets in the show. Rehearsals began about six weeks ago, and Dunlap said the cast has been really dedicated since they had to learn everything a bit more quickly than usual to account for having puppets on stage.
“Initially, we blocked it without the puppets so everyone knew where they were on stage, and they had to get on book and learn their music as quickly as possible, so that we could start adding the puppet element. So that was different in a technical aspect,” Dunlap said. “There’s also been some other technical things, like as far as where the puppet’s focus is; sometimes the actors will want to look somewhere but their puppet doesn’t look with them. And it’s also different than ‘Sesame Street’ because we see the puppeteer, so that element is unusual as well; it’s required a little more coordination and a little more thinking.”
The set for “Avenue Q” is also quite large, especially since the cast itself is smaller and the concept for the show is essentially small. The set is two stories, and it’s designed in such a way that the actors can essentially hide on stage, since the puppets will sometimes appear without their human counterparts. Dunlap said that while the show does deal with some adult subject matter, he thinks the puppets are a really nice added element, but the message behind the show would still be good without them.
“I think it’s a very sweet show, surprisingly sweet. And that while it is adult, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s dirty. It’s just adult subject matter and some adult words. But I don’t think it’s perhaps as risqué as people might think,” Dunlap explained. “It’s made for an interesting element, but I think the overall message of it is quite sweet and good, something that people need to hear right now, which is that we need to come together as a community and be good neighbors. And in that sense, that’s the same as ‘Mr. Rogers’ or ‘Sesame Street’. But otherwise, it’s really funny. I think it’s a very well-structured play, very well-written. Great music.”
The Theatre Centre’s production of “Avenue Q” opens Friday night and will be have a limited run of seven performances through May 12. There will be evening shows Thursday-Saturday with 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinee shows. Tickets can be purchased online or at the Theatre Centre box office.
You may have thought that puppets were just for children’s shows, but let Dunlap and the rest of the cast show you how puppets can add a humorous element to adult theatre in the CTC’s production of “Avenue Q”; you certainly won’t be disappointed.