Avenue Q review
Cheeky puppets still amuse in this sparkling revival
It’s a transatlantic reunion on Avenue Q for this 20th anniversary revival of the hit puppet musical’s West End opening, bringing back together original Broadway director Jason Moore, set designer Anna Louizos and Rick Lyon’s creations. London’s first Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut performer, Julie Atherton, is also associate director.
Any doubts that the show’s particularly noughties brand of foul-mouthed cheek would work in 2026 are quickly dispelled. If anything, lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book writer Jeff Whitty’s loving subversion and transposition of the heightened, happy harmony of Sesame Street to a cash-strapped New York suburb feels even sharper against the backdrop of today’s cost-of-living crisis and polarised social climate.
But the show’s close-to-the-knuckle humour wouldn’t work if it were simply a mean-spirited jab at its melting pot of characters. Its pitch-perfect, primary-coloured evocation of trying to get by in a world that never seems to give you a break is funny, weirdly touching and relevant. Some modernising tweaks to the book and songs to include references to AI-related job losses, social influencing and podcasts work seamlessly well.
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And the songs – orchestrated with joyful exuberance by Stephen Oremus – have something for everyone. Lopez and Marx draw as deeply on the musical playbook as Jim Henson. For every cathartically stupid The Internet is for Porn, there’s the witty provocation of Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist and just enough heartbreak in There’s a Fine, Fine Line.
Moore ensures that the pace never slacks and that there’s always something to catch your eye on stage. The street itself is a character – a cracked-lens, studio-back-lot riff on reality. Louizos’ puppet-scale set is aptly like a pop-up book, with something behind every window or door. It blends well with Nina Dunn’s amusing, faux-educational video inserts.
Of course, Lyon’s puppets are the stars of the show. From the bulging-eyed mania of the Bad Idea Bears to the pinched anxiety of closeted Republican Rod, each has a detailed expressiveness that lifts them beyond simply paying satirical homage to their more innocent inspirations. Depressingly, the archetypal nature of puppets also captures something of the social media-simplified behaviour of real people today.
A superb cast effortlessly sync their performances with the puppets they are operating or acting opposite. Noah Harrison impresses as Rod and naïve graduate Princeton. Charlie McCullagh dextrously brings to life Nicky, Trekkie Monster and a Bad Idea Bear. Emily Benjamin steals scenes as shy Kate the Monster and hard-nosed Lucy the Slut. As formidable double-master’s degree Japanese migrant Christmas Eve, Amelia Kinu Muus also sharpens every comic line.
Not every character works, and the second half feels like an extended epilogue, but for big laughs and a winkingly naughty jolt of hand-operated humanity, this show is hard to beat.
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