Review: Avenue Q

The hit Broadway musical that taught us what the internet was really for (porn), told us that everyone’s a little bit racist and revealed that it sucks to be me (and you) came to Glasgow this week and I was overjoyed to be able to go and see it.
I have known and loved the songs from Avenue Q since around the age of 15 when one of my close friends and I listened to the Original Cast Recording whilst mucking around in the music department.  There have been almost six years of love and anticipation for me surrounding this musical, and I have to say it lived up to every one of my expectations and managed to exceed them.
The opening half is the more interesting and driven as it sets up the plot points which will be resolved by the end of the show.  The young Princeton puppet arrives with his B.A in English to the cheap-looking street in New York.  He is broke and is trying to find his purpose in life.  The best songs are also in this half and my highlights have to be It sucks to be, If you were gay, and Fantasies Come True (which is one of the more heart-braking songs as the kicker at the end reveals).  The story deals with the tribulations of entering adult-hood as Princeton and the other characters struggle to pay the bills, find love and have a life.
There are two maniacal teddy bears who encourage drinking, debauchery and eventually suicide as an option for Princeton and the absurdity of seeing a teddy bear holding a noose is a sight to behold.  
As previously mentioned the second half is slightly weaker than the first as we resolve the messes created in the first act.  But it quickly picks up pace again as we race towards the finish.  The end song For Now is about the transience of problems as everything, apart from death and taxes, passes.  You may feel like life has dealt you lemons but eventually those lemons will turn into apples.
The humour in this show comes from the worries and stress of entering adulthood, the realisation that you aren’t that special and just muddling on through anyhow.  The show being set in New York contains a lot of American pop-culture references but they are mainly widespread enough on this side of the Atlantic to be funny to a non-US audience.
I love this musical.  I urge you all to see it at some point, or just to listen to the songs.  You’ll laugh all the way through.

First Act: 5/5
Second Act: 4/5
Overall Rating: 9/10