Sesame Seedy Fun

Seeing as I've been a bit busy this past week and haven't had much of a chance to post on here I thought I'd write about one of the reasons I've been quiet. On Wednesday of last week I took Wen to see the musical Avenue Q at Rhyl Pavillion. I'd been aware that it was showing in Rhyl but to be honest I wasn't really willing to pay £20ish, as luck would have it one of my new co-workers was able to hook me up with a two for one deal (more on that soon) so suddenly £20ish seemed reasonable.

For people who aren't familiar with Avenue Q, it's essentially Sesame Street with swearing and f*cking within the frame of musical theatre. Now I'm not a theatre goer and there isn't many occassions where I am interested in going to a show but I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss out on two for one puppet sex.

The basic story is of a university graduate named Princeton who moves to New York, we follow him as he rents his first apartment, has his first relationship, first job, and tries to find his purpose in life. His apartment happens to be on Avenue Q and this is where the straightforward sounding plot gets a little mental. Avenue Q is Sesame Street for sexual fiends, former child actors, the poverty-stricken, and closet homosexuals. Through Princeton's exploits we get to meet all the characters living on Avenue Q and see what ridiculous things they get up to, I'll take this opportunity to introduce the rest the characters. There is the previously mentioned Princeton (puppet), Kate Monster (puppet love interest and kindergarten teacher), there is Rod (puppet and closet gay) and Nicky (puppet and scruffy flatmate of Rod), Brian (human and wannabe comedian) and his oriental girlfriend Christmas Eve (human and qualified therapist), Trekkie Monster (puppet and letchy recluse), Gary Coleman (human and washed up TV star turned caretaker), The Bad Idea Bears (puppets and troublemakers), and there is the no explanation needed Lucy The Slut (puppet).

During the course of the show all of the characters deal with their own issues and try to find their way in life, usually by way of a song. Whilst the show is laugh out loud funny in places and of course seeing how the  blend of puppets and humans works, the real reason for tipping up the admission fee is the songs. They are incredibly catchy and wildly funny, essentially they are twisted songs that get stuck in your head in the same way Disney songs do. You'll have to get a feel for the songs from their titles: 'It Sucks To Be Me', 'If You Were Gay', 'The Internet Is For Porn', and 'You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)'. As you can gather from the titles there is some pretty adult themes in these songs but they still have that catchy child-like quality to them, as seen below.

Now the people in that video aren't the actors in the production I went to but to be honest they aren't any different either. The performance that's touring the UK at the moment stars, what the programme informs me, a host of theatre luminaries who have done the occasional stint in TV shows like Doctors. I'll be honest when I read that in the programme it didn't inspire confidence but to be fair they all have bills to pay and I imagine it's hard to get a break in the industry. Any doubts I had about the pedigree of the cast were quickly dispelled by a series of great performances and even better singing voices, the lady singing for Lucy The Slut and Kate Monster in particular was incredible in her ability to change her singing voice and still sound brilliant. The cast were extremely enthusiastic and were putting in plenty of effort which showed in their work and that was the only negative I have for the show. Now I'm not saying it was a bad thing that they were trying so hard, that's awesome, it did make me uncomfortable though. You see, those two for one tickets I mentioned, those were being given out because the show wasn't selling. Now that isn't their fault but when a cast is giving their all to all of seventy people it can be a little awkward. There are a couple of occasions in which the cast work the stage and go to the sides to make sure the whole audience gets involved,, thing is there wasn't anybody there and all I could think about during those moments was how soul destroying that must be. That being said I'd much rather that went about things professionally than perform half-hearted for the empty room.

Normally I would encourage folks to check this out, and if you do get a chance you totally should, unfortunately though I've wrote this post three days after it has finished playing in Rhyl! If it does tour again or if you happen to be for a little traveling I would highly recommend catching this show. It's a unique experience and those involved deserve far bigger crowds than the Rhyl shows gave them.

Puppets + swearing + (Disney songs - children) + puppet sex = A top night in Rhyl.

Laters

Mechagodzeala

(my phone won't let me post my Mecha picture so you can have this Johnny Explaino instead)