Rehearsal Room Productions:Avenue Q -Review by Daniel Conway

There are so many things that performers do that people assume are easy, particularly when those things are connected with entertaining children. Sure, singing songs to kids is not as technical, but the endurance needed to maintain the right energy and keep them engaged is exhausting. Not to mention that children are truffle pigs for authenticity. Puppetry falls into that same category of things that people assume are easy but are actually really hard. To infuse life into an object so much that you, the performer, stop existing takes practice and work. Couple all of this with adult humour and biting satire and you have Avenue Q. The Rehearsal Room’s latest production is a delightful stay in this felt and fur hamlet, full to the brim with charm and laughs.

Photos courtesy of Grant Leslie

The first thing that grabs you about this production is the impressive set, which utilises the almost black-box nature of the Campbelltown stage perfectly to allow for depth and dynamic movement. Director/Choreographer Marlee Hyeronimus made smart choices to create engaging visuals and shapes on stage in a space that can be quite tricky to work with. Musical Director Laura Grdic’s work with the cast is clear. They deliver the crisp vocals you would expect from a Sesame–Muppet style show, but infused with so much personality. Avenue Q is not a pretty-song musical; it is about character and timing, which Grdic and Hyeronimus have been able to bring out in their cast.

Photos courtesy of Grant Leslie

Speaking of the cast, this is not a huge musical in terms of numbers, but there are so many named roles and every person did an amazing job. Nicole Britton and Mike Newcombe as the Bad Idea Bears were scene-stealers who had fantastic comedic timing. Bryson Grenfell as Trekkie gave some of my favourite puppetry and brought such bright energy. Russ Belmont and Jessica Soh as Brian and Christmas Eve played great foils to the puppets’ antics, while also standing out in their own right. Elli Vitiello infused Gary Coleman with just the right amount of ironic awareness to dial up the absurdist humour the script requires.

Ash Toweel is hilarious as Nicky, with such a charming voice, and brings a lot of character and levels to the role. Chris Brennan had probably my favourite movements with his puppet; at points I genuinely forgot he was there. Additionally, his vocal stims were hilarious and perfect for the moment. Sophie Nancarrow and Robbie Cooper as Kate Monster and Princeton are delightful. Both of them were dripping with the earnest enthusiasm that makes the characters charming without ever veering into saccharine. This allowed what is always the funniest scene in any production of Avenue Q to hit so perfectly. If these two, and their beautiful singing voices, do not ground the production, nothing works, and they were both stunning in the roles.

Photos courtesy of Grant Leslie

Avenue Q is a show I enjoy more as I get older. The jokes are well-written satire, so they have not aged as badly as other “edgy” internet humour from which it proliferated when first released. However, to pull it off you need a sense of what is being satirised and what makes it funny, and in less capable hands this can go wrong. Thankfully, The Rehearsal Room’s cast and crew are more than capable.