Best Shows of 2019

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens at the Union Theatre

"This has to be one of the best things I’ve ever seen and I implore you to see this show because you will not regret it. I hope this show has more life after this run at the Union Theatre and I’m sure this won’t be your only chance to see this production but you need to go and buy a ticket now otherwise you’ve missed one of the theatrical highlights of 2019."

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Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre

"I have never come out of a show feeling the way I felt about this play. It is time to face the facts and realise the wrongs in history and change them now, our voices can be heard... This is the play of the year, if there is one story you are to be told this year, its this one."

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REVIEW: Avenue Q at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking

Avenue Q is back in Woking, and I have never been happier. It’s the most perverse version of Sesame Street you’ll ever see - puppets in all manner of compromising positions, spewing jokes based on racism, pornography and sex. It’s belly-achingly funny. Written by Robert Lopez (the man who co-wrote music and lyrics The Book of Mormon and Disney’s Frozen) and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q is perhaps their finest work which simply gets funnier as time goes on. 

Princeton, a wide-eyed yellow puppet arrives on Avenue Q, fresh out of college asking the age old question “What DO you do with a BA in English?” and ready to take on the world. With the help of his new neighbours, he quickly realises he’s well out of his depth and has a few things to learn before he can truly discover his “purpose”. On the way, he finds a fuzzy kinda love in Kate Monster. With an Asian-American woman named after a December holiday, a closeted homosexual Republican book-worm and two teddy bears who encourage poor behaviour, this show packs a million punches of world-class humour which relishes on dancing right on the line of “are they allowed to say/do that?!” 

10 Long running shows that didn't win Best Musical at the Oliviers

Chicago

The original production of Chicago in 1979 lost out on the Best Musical Award to Songbook. However the revival did win Best Musical revival in 1998. The original production ran for 600 performances at the Cambridge Theatre. The show was also nominated in two other categories at the 1979 Olivier Awards; Antonia Ellis (Roxie) for Best Actress in a Musical and Ben Cross (Billy Flynn) for Best Actor in a Musical. However The Awards went to Virginia McKenna (The King and I and Anton Rodgers (Songbook).

Starlight Express

This long running show at the Victoria Apollo ran for 7,409 performances over 18 years. The show is currently the ninth longest running West End show in History and remains the Apollo Victoria Theatres longest running show. The musical lost out on the Best Musical Award to 42nd Street in 1984. Lon Satton, who played Poppa in the original London production, was also nominated for Best Actor in a Musical but the award went to Paul Clarkson for The Hired Man.

REVIEW: Avenue Q at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking

Like an after-hours episode of Sesame Street or late-night Muppets, Avenue Q is the polar opposite of most mainstream musicals. Cheeky, rude and risqué, this production delights the audience from start to finish.

Following the lives of a strange bunch of characters living on run-down Avenue Q, the story focuses on friendship, love and doing nice things for each other. It’s a simple enough tale brought to life by some fancy puppetry, memorable and delightful songs and colourful storytelling.

AVENUE Q returning in UK tour for 2015 and 2016

A smash hit on Broadway, in the West End and most recently in a critically-acclaimed 2014 UK Tour, award-winning comedy musical Avenue Q will return in 2015 and 2016, bringing a host of fuzzy friends to theatres across the country from Wednesday 22 April 2015, when a new tour launches from the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. Full tour schedule attached.

Featuring the naughtiest puppets in town, brought hilariously to life by an ensemble cast of 11 performers, Avenue Q is a Tony Award-winning musical about growing up, dreaming big, and finding your purpose in life.

Meet Princeton, a bright-eyed graduate who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. Soon discovering that the only neighborhood in his price range is Avenue Q, he finds himself moving in with some truly quirky characters. There’s Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fiancée Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his closet gay Republican roommate Rod, an Internet ‘sexpert’ called Trekkie Monster and a very cute kindergarten teacher named Kate Monster. And would you believe the building’s superintendent is Gary Coleman?! Featuring hysterically funny songs including The Internet is for Porn and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist,Avenue Q is a hilarious musical with a warm (and very fuzzy) heart.

“You’d be a muppet to miss it”

EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS

REVIEW: Avenue Q, on tour around the UK

With hugely successful runs on both sides of the Atlantic, Avenue Q has once again hit the road and is currently touring throughout the UK and Ireland, providing audiences with laugh out loud fun. The Tony award winning show follows the lives of the residents of Avenue Q, a rundown New York suburb populated by an eclectic mix of puppets, people  and monsters. From Brian the unemployed human comedian to Trekkie Monster (who can only be described as Animal from the Muppets with a serious porn addiction). Avenue Q is populated by a collection of  wonderfully unique and humorous characters.  

The shows small cast of just eleven actors do a terrific job bringing the larger than life characters to the stage.  It is clear that the puppetry was given a lot of attention and this attention paid off because watching the puppets it's easy to believe they are real life characters and not just puppets. Some of the more subtle movements of the puppets definitely help to give the puppets a realistic feel as they effectively mimic the movements we make every day. However, Avenue Q isn't exclusively inhabited by puppets, theres also Brian, Christmas Eve and Gary. The way in which the actors who play the streets humans interact with the puppets again adds to the believability of the puppets  giving them a life like quality.