‘Avenue Q’ still worth a visit
Young, gung-ho cast animates puppets in Rollins production.
It had been a while since I visited the friendly neighborhood of Tony winner “Avenue Q.” Rollins College is presenting the musical puppet comedy at its Annie Russell Theatre, and although there are a few bumps in the road, at least major potholes are avoided.
Director Timothy Williams has assembled a gung-ho young cast of actors, and their puppeteering skills — directed by Rebekah Lane — are up to the challenge. The production’s greatest shortcoming, though, is a fuzziness that hovers around its edges — and it’s not the fuzzy fur of the adorable puppet stars.
The best comedy is crisply delivered, and that’s not always the case at Rollins. Inexperienced actors don’t know to wait for the laugh, or don’t quite find the cadence of the jokes. The music, too, isn’t always as sharp as it should be; it’s wonderful to hear a live orchestra, under the baton of music director Jason M. Bailey, but it sometimes sounds as though the onstage singers aren’t quite in sync with the players in the pit.
In “Avenue Q,” recent college graduate Princeton moves into an urban neighborhood only to find that life is full of challenges and surprises. He learns about love, commitment, responsibility and more from human and puppet friends in a manner reminiscent of TV’s “Sesame Street” — but with cursing and simulated sex. This is a show about adult life lessons, after all.
Leading players Colin Flaumenthaft and Analise Cutter have a firm grasp on their characters, and their puppets, for that matter. Flaumenhaft doesn’t shy away from showing Princeton’s immaturity, while Cutter gives Kate a pleasing core of toughness under her girly exterior.
Parker King’s choreography has an appropriately chipper sensibility, as you might find on a public-television kids’ program. And Lisa Cody-Rapport’s scenic design cleverly mixes childlike colors into the streetscape of the rundown avenue.
“Avenue Q” shows its age in places — in today’s cellphone selfie world, a song lyric about wanting more pictures from college has changed from wistful to humorous. But this clever, quirky show still has a lot to teach us about the treacherous road from childhood to maturity.