Full Puppet Nudity

I went to see the Tony award-winning musical Avenue Q on Sunday night at Madison’s Overture Center. It was entertaining, raunchy, and completely hilarious. The show is largely inspired by Sesame Street and most of the characters are puppets (operated by onstage actors). The story follows the lives of several 20-somethings who live in New York City as they attempt to navigate the unexpected life after college—“What Do You Do With a BA in English”—of shitty jobs, difficult relationships, and never-ending bills. The show includes full-on puppet sex, musical numbers entitled “The Internet is For Porn”, “It Sucks to Be Me,” and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” and a puppet named Lucy the Slut.

My favorite characters, however, are the Bad Idea Bears. The sweet sounding, colorful stuffed bears, reminiscent of Care Bears, continually taunt the main characters, Princeton and Kate, and talk them into several bad ideas like playing drinking games with Long Island Ice Teas the night before a very important day at work, taking a tipsy date home for sex (post Long Islands), and buying a case of beer despite being broke.

I definitely enjoyed the show and the parody of life after college. The actors/puppeteers/singers were phenomenally talented. I don’t know how they kept it all straight. I would definitely recommend this show for a great laugh.