Stage: Avenue Q

Avenue Q at the Theatre Royal Brighton is the perfect escape from the constraints of real life in an age dominated by political correctness

One of the West End’s biggest hits of recent years, the Tony Award winning musical comedy, Avenue Q, returns to the Theatre Royal Brighton this summer. Hilarious and uproariously entertaining, with songs performed by a cast of hugely talented performers and puppets, Avenue Q is a musical like no other. If you imagine Sesame Street crossed with Family Guy and you may get close – but not quite.

Full of mischief, bad behaviour and political incorrectness, Avenue Q is the perfect, contemporary musical. It may sail close to the wind but sitting there you can’t help thinking ‘if only I could say that!’ The puppets simply have license to voice our darkest thoughts.

The show has already enjoyed enormous success with audiences on Broadway, the West End and throughout its UK tour, so this is a great chance to catch it again or see it for the first time if you missed it first time round.

The show is about the lively and off-the-wall characters on a downtown New York street trying to make sense of life’s burning issues: love; work; relationships and above all, just how are you supposed to pay the bills ‘with a BA in English?’.

It follows Princeton, a bright-eyed college graduate new to the area, as he desperately tries to follow his dreams and discover his ever elusive purpose in life. A tiny bank balance, the distraction of a busty blonde and a variety of weird and wonderful friends and neighbours, lead Princeton on a journey of self-discovery.

Avenue Q is the result of a collaboration between Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who began writing the show in 1999, originally thinking the idea would make a great TV series. Three years later it opened Off Broadway and following rave reviews, it transferred to Broadway. In 2004 the show won three Tony Awards for Best New Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. Don’t let your life suck, this is the perfect antidote to a month of high art.

Avenue Q, Theatre Royal Brighton
Monday 4–Saturday 9 June, Mon–Thu 7.45pm, Fri 5.30pm & 8.30pm, Sat 4pm & 7.45pm, £17.50–£32.50 (bkg fee), 0844 871 7650
www.atgtickets.com