My thoughts on "Avenue Q"

This raunchy puppet musical was surprisingly funny. I know a few "non-theater" types who greatly enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to it going in.

As we've done in the past, we bought the soundtrack before going. For a show like Spring Awakening, this helps make the show clearer. Sometimes the words get muddled on stage and it's better to know a little bit in advance. With Avenue Q, however, I actually wouldn't recommend it. Some of the joy of the show is its audacious lyrics, and I think maybe I knew too much going into it.

In general, the songs were very funny, the characters and puppets were surprisingly well crafted and acted (with a few notable exceptions). And the Sesame Street style interludes on the two TV monitors were handled well.

If anything really didn't work for me it was the character Christmas Eve, the Japanese therapist. I would even go so far as to call her a failed character. I understand what the creators were going for, but it just didn't work. There are good ways to poke fun at stereotypes, but Christmas Eve was no different that Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles, and even not so far apart from Mickey Rooney's horrendous Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And it's bad when I reference a stereotype from 1961 (which was outdated even then).

It just didn't work. (And I don't think it's the actress. Her voice and songs didn't work on the soundtrack either, which was made by the original Broadway cast.)

But the show is very good and I definitely recommend it if you happen to be in NYC or London's West End. Although I hear now that it's closed at the Wynn in Vegas a national tour has started up too. Just be prepared for "full puppet nudity" and some dirty talk and you'll fine.