A Fuzzball Riot
According to Charlie Brooker this week: 'Musicals are not to be trusted. They're not right.' Having just seeing Avenue Q, I feel he may be right. You should never trust anything that makes you laugh out loud at manifest evilness of bears.
The Bad Idea Bears (who could between them confirm all of Mr. Grasso's suspicions of ursine evil, especially when they end up converting to Scientology) were among the many moments when Avenue Q had me shaking with laughter. The idea of an adult musical inspired by and following the conventions by Sesame Street was always going to be either a glorious fist of furry fun or a slow-motion car crash. It ended up being a fuzzball riot and I loved it.
Anything that relies on the instant recognition of childhood for its hook has to have something more powerful in the tank to last beyond 10 minutes. If the only humour in Avenue Q was knowing that Rod and Nicky are versions of Bert and Ernie, Trekkie Monster is related to Cookie Monster and its human characters are a satire on the rainbow casting of children’s TV, the show would fall flat. Even rather fabulous songs on the universality of racism, heartbreak and sex in the characteristically bouncy style of Sesame Street would not be enough to keep you interested for more than two hours.
What makes Avenue Q not just funny, not just brilliantly staged and performed, but worth watching is that it observes some of the widespread angst of my generation without being poncey. Without any sense of effort, it casually managed to be as deep as your average Enda Walsh play. However, it did this without any annoying hint of pretension and the added bonus of brilliant puppets.
My definition of a brilliant puppet is one that, through the performance of the pupeteer, you forget is rods, felt and stuffing and begin to interact with imaginatively in the same way you do any theatrical character brought to life. Kermit the frog would be a good example of this. When Jim Henson got the little green blighter right, he could do a lot more than teach children how to count.
The Avenue Q puppets stopped being furr and strangely coloured noses within the first couple of scenes. When the emotionally crushed Kate Monster sings: ‘There is a fine, fine line/ Between love and a waste of time’ it works because she is expressing a human experience. She is no longer the bastard child of Zippy from Rainbow and Zoe from Sesame Street; she is simply someone who made a huge emotional investment in the wrong person.
While I laughed lines such as: ‘Schadenfreude? What's that, some kinda Nazi word?’ and lyrics like: ‘Everyone's a little bit racist sometimes/Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes’ two of my biggest chuckles of the night did not come from the libretto. The announcement that Naoko Mori (geek readers will know her as Toshiko Sato from Torchwood) could not continue playing her part in the second half due to her ‘disposition’ dripped such distilled sarcasm you could not help but squirm in discomfort. Even funnier was when a member of the audience sitting close to us announced a little bit too loudly as a banner proclaiming ‘Monsteresorri School’ was unfurled: ‘I know it’s a real word, but I don’t get it.’
Not wanting to confirm Mr. Brooker’s thesis on musicals, but the next one I intend to see is Wicked. It is a show notorious for its satire on spin and the loss of free speech that just happens to feature a green-skinned guerrilla and flying monkeys. Like Avenue Q, it is definitely one not to be trusted.
The Bad Idea Bears (who could between them confirm all of Mr. Grasso's suspicions of ursine evil, especially when they end up converting to Scientology) were among the many moments when Avenue Q had me shaking with laughter. The idea of an adult musical inspired by and following the conventions by Sesame Street was always going to be either a glorious fist of furry fun or a slow-motion car crash. It ended up being a fuzzball riot and I loved it.
Anything that relies on the instant recognition of childhood for its hook has to have something more powerful in the tank to last beyond 10 minutes. If the only humour in Avenue Q was knowing that Rod and Nicky are versions of Bert and Ernie, Trekkie Monster is related to Cookie Monster and its human characters are a satire on the rainbow casting of children’s TV, the show would fall flat. Even rather fabulous songs on the universality of racism, heartbreak and sex in the characteristically bouncy style of Sesame Street would not be enough to keep you interested for more than two hours.
What makes Avenue Q not just funny, not just brilliantly staged and performed, but worth watching is that it observes some of the widespread angst of my generation without being poncey. Without any sense of effort, it casually managed to be as deep as your average Enda Walsh play. However, it did this without any annoying hint of pretension and the added bonus of brilliant puppets.
My definition of a brilliant puppet is one that, through the performance of the pupeteer, you forget is rods, felt and stuffing and begin to interact with imaginatively in the same way you do any theatrical character brought to life. Kermit the frog would be a good example of this. When Jim Henson got the little green blighter right, he could do a lot more than teach children how to count.
The Avenue Q puppets stopped being furr and strangely coloured noses within the first couple of scenes. When the emotionally crushed Kate Monster sings: ‘There is a fine, fine line/ Between love and a waste of time’ it works because she is expressing a human experience. She is no longer the bastard child of Zippy from Rainbow and Zoe from Sesame Street; she is simply someone who made a huge emotional investment in the wrong person.
While I laughed lines such as: ‘Schadenfreude? What's that, some kinda Nazi word?’ and lyrics like: ‘Everyone's a little bit racist sometimes/Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes’ two of my biggest chuckles of the night did not come from the libretto. The announcement that Naoko Mori (geek readers will know her as Toshiko Sato from Torchwood) could not continue playing her part in the second half due to her ‘disposition’ dripped such distilled sarcasm you could not help but squirm in discomfort. Even funnier was when a member of the audience sitting close to us announced a little bit too loudly as a banner proclaiming ‘Monsteresorri School’ was unfurled: ‘I know it’s a real word, but I don’t get it.’
Not wanting to confirm Mr. Brooker’s thesis on musicals, but the next one I intend to see is Wicked. It is a show notorious for its satire on spin and the loss of free speech that just happens to feature a green-skinned guerrilla and flying monkeys. Like Avenue Q, it is definitely one not to be trusted.
Labels: Avenue Q, Charlie Brooker, Musical reviews
posted by David at 11:59 PM
8 Comments:
I have long felt that life should be a musical and that we would all be better off for bursting into song at opportune moments. That alone could lighten up life which we all need at times.
It sounds like a wonderful experience. We don't get much of that here since we are a culturally deficient area (aka rural.)
Thank you for the glimpse.
Glad that you liked that one, and it's one I have been waiting for someone else to see it with ever since my good mates Rob and Natalie told me all about it, so darn and bugger that you went off and saw it without me!
In fact, they didn't so much as tell me about it, as semi reminisce, semi recreate and outright sing as much as they could do without breaking into laughter ... but then with songs like ‘The Internet is For Porn’ what else did I expect.
So double darn you didn't watch it with me, because it would have been damn nice to see you really belly laugh again.
Zirelda – Life is performance without rehearsal, so living it as a musical may be no bad thing. I certainly believe in bursting into song - even if I cannot hold a note.
Dickon – As for you banging on about not inviting you along to Avenue Q, just who is going to see my London team tonight without me?
I'm very glad you were able to see this! I have been longing to see it ever since I've seen little bits and pieces they show on television here and there. Have to wait 'til it's out on tour. The podcast is coming out soon--may be worth the time, eh?
I've heard a lot of good things about Wicked as well. Now, that's on tour here in June--can't wait!
It's funny, isn't it, what can be said in a song, and how much can be expressed with music.
It sounds like a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing the laughs--those are my favorite kind, too. :^)
Ìve just finished reading 'wicked' - it would be interesting to see how well it adapts to a musical.. I know its very much a hit in New York and London but I still cant picture Elphaba breaking into song..
Do you have any idea how gay it sounds to hear you and Dickon talking about going to musicals?
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a grand book. I would happily recommend it to almost anyone. If you look at the libretto of Wicked you might be somewhat reassured. Lyrics like: ‘ I hope you’re proud/How you would grovel in submission/To feed you own ambition’ are very Elphaba.
Fuck, that sounds so much awesomer than Dream Girls.. I hate musicals too.
'Cannibal: The Musical' being the exception. The story of Alferd Packer, as told by Trey Parker. Alferd Packer ate his friends in the mountains here one winter when they got stuck in snow. As you can imagine, that translates to a great musical.
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