Avenue Q

The hugely popular musical uses original muppet-type characters portrayed on stage by actor/puppeteers in a tale of down-and-outs in an “”outer-outer borough” of New York. The selling point is rude language and controversial topics (race, sexuality and so on) but the plot, although fairly sharp and flabless, is gratingly cliched and predictable. That might the bread and butter of musicals however, and the songs didn’t disappoint; ‘There’s A Fine, Fine Line’ is a memorable, stirring number for example about the blurred distinction between love and hate. The staging was superb too, and Sarah Harlington’s turn as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut was impressive, voicing two characters at once and exuding charisma and charm herself. Fun, and occasionally funny, but not as subversive or challenging as it claims to be.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 22 September 2015

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