Student Blog: Avenue Q - How Puppets Can Tell A Deeply Human Story

Avenue Q is one of Broadway's most unique masterpieces of all time. With the simple charm, music, and felt-faced protagonists of Sesame Street and the biting humor, prolific swearing, and relatable depiction of mediocre adult life, the 2003 Tony winner for Best Musical certainly made a name for itself as it delighted the audiences of New York City for 10 beautiful, off-color years. While many feel that the concept of "Dirty Puppets" has become tired and cliche with the production of movies like The Happytime Murderers or the success of comedians like Randy Feltface, Avenue Q withstands the test of time through its sincere storytelling and simple themes that remind us all to find joy in our lives where we can and appreciate the things we have.

I'm going to dissuade all sense of unbiased journalistic integrity and confess that Avenue Q is one of my favorite musicals of all time. Since my childhood obsession with Sesame Street, The Muppets, and Fraggle Rock I have always admired Jim Henson and his unique creative vision (as seen by my signature Kermit adidas). While most people lose interest in the childish world of Henson as they grow up, something about the earnest positivity and sweet messages of his work has continued to resonate with me as I enter adulthood. Sesame Street's signature simple, sweet music and charming characters have become iconic in the nearly 50 years since its premier in 1969 and its themes of kindness and optimism teach children around the world to be the best person they can be and help make the world a better place. Avenue Q sees this optimism and flips it the bird as it shows us the world from a much grittier, mundane perspective as they discuss the topics of sex and sexuality, homelessness, racism, and the universal search for our purpose in life. The charming score, written by Broadway's favorite composer for alternative comedies, Robert Lopez, is simple but rich with catchy hits like "Schadenfreude" getting stuck in your head for hours and gorgeous ballads like "There's A Fine, Fine Line'' residing in the repertoire book of every young actress, including myself as I performed that very song as my first semester final at AMDA. Avenue Q is a personal dream show of mine and many other comedic actors who have a love for the unlikely duo of dirty humor and puppets.

On the dirty streets of an "outer-outer borough" of New York City, a young man named Princeton finds himself a recent college graduate seeking his purpose in life alongside his quirky neighbors of all human, puppet, and monster kinds as they tackle the issues of poverty, sexuality, and existential dread. Author Jeff Whitty and composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx pull no punches as they boldly address these heavy topics in musical form, the best example of which being the iconic number "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist". However, unlike other pieces of media that rely on shock-value and obscenity to act as the majority of the "humor", Avenue Q is able to withstand the test of time through it's clever storytelling and subversion of expectations as it touches on very authentic experiences and feelings. For example, the character Christmas Eve is a very clear depiction of an extreme japanese stereotype, with a very strong accent and chromatically underscored music with heavy use of a gong. While her character is mainly used as comedic relief and a meta-commentary on racist cliches themsleves, she actually is one of the most emotionally centered characters as she sings her touching ballad "The More You Ruv Someone". Avenue Q is such an enduring musical theater classic in that it perfectly maintains this balance of obscenity and sincerity in a way that captures perfectly average but content adult life in the 21st century.

Obviously, one cannot talk about Avenue Q without discussing it's signature style and interesting cast of characters that take the form of various puppets. With former Sesame Street cast member Rick Lyons taking helm of the creation of the felt-faced friends, the design of every single character is incredibly detailed and allows for such a large range of expression and movement from both the puppets themselves and their outstanding human actors, including puppeteering legend Stephanie D'Abruzzo who, like the entire ensemble, plays many different roles throughout the show. While the story of Avenue Q could easily be told with humans, although many of the jokes wouldn't make sense, the content and dialogue of the show would seem much less charming when coming from the mouths of actual people rather than monsters and colorful puppets. Oftentimes, media that is most successfully able to take a comedic approach to crude or graphic subject matter rarely uses live, human actors at all as simulated sex and swearing is much more palatable when it comes from the mouths of puppets, like in Avenue Q, or in another famous, subversive, musical comedy, South Park, that employs child protagonists and animation as a medium in order to justify telling very provocative and controversial stories. Without the sweet fabric faces of Kate Monster or Lucy The Slut, Avenue Q would've most likely been deemed off-putting or overly offensive as the musical would lose all claims of parody by abandoning the puppetry of Sesame Street and, by doing so, completely devaluing the genius concept behind the musical. Avenue Q's use of puppets allows the show to tell a darker, dirtier story with a genuine heartfelt message and teaches valuable life lessons in ways that have kept our attention for over 10 years, just as its inspiration, Sesame Street, has been doing for children around the world as they teach similar, but more wholesome lessons of friendship, kindness, and doing the best you can.

In conclusion, Avenue Q remains one of musical theater's most unique masterpieces as its heartfelt story and beautiful score combine with outrageous subject matter and exceptional humor in order to give audiences the feeling that their favorite childhood show grew up alongside them and is still here to help guide them just like it did when we were little. The creative team behind the Broadway mega-hit deliberately uses nostalgia and parody in order to soften an otherwise depressing narrative. Avenue Q's use of comforting, familiar, felt-faced friends allows the musical to dive into mature topics and straddles the line between obscene and sincere in a way that proves how even puppets can deeply capture what it means to be human.