Review: Everything is Hilarious on AVENUE Q at The Barn Players

Spoiler Alert! If you attend Avenue Q, you will find yourself at one of the most creative productions of the theatrical season. Avenue Q opened on Friday April 17 at The Barn Players in Mission, Kansas. Based on the original concept of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx Avenue Q is a musical in two acts. Music and lyrics are by Lopez and Marx with the book by Jeff Whitty.

Eric Magnus, Artistic Director of The Barn Players, directs an enormously talented cast in the musical that employs mixed media and puppetry to come to life on the stage. The puppetry is phenomenal; the actors appear that they have been doing it for years and not just the seven weeks of rehearsals. Guy Gardner trained the actors with the puppets and choreographed the production. Gardner trained with the Walt Disney Company and performed in the national tour of Veggie Tales Live Silly Song Sing Along. The wonderful set design by Ken Schmidt draws the audience onto Avenue Q, where puppets and humans intermingle in song and dance.

Avenue Q opened on Broadway in July of 2003 and won three Tony Awards including Best Musical. Avenue Q is a hilarious coming-of-age tale. The use of puppets is the only semblance to Sesame Street as Avenue Q is more like the Muppets on LSD. The puppets take on touchy subjects as gays, suicide, porn, commitment, love, and racism in songs such as "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today," and "The More You Ruv Someone." The show is rated R for really-funny and due to the content, language, and puppet copulation. I should probably stop reviewing because after opening night I have seen it all, including full frontal puppet nudity.

Preston O'ffill is fantastic as Princeton, the newest resident of Avenue Q who falls in love with Kate Monster. Like all the puppet characters, the actors react to what is happening on stage in the same manner as their puppet counterparts. O'ffill has a marvelous voice and his facial expressions bring life to his puppet character.

Betsy Jane Bledsoe makes her debut at The Barn Players as the life behind Kate Monster, a resident of Avenue Q who dreams of opening a school for monsters. The voice she has chosen for her character is one of the best on stage. It sounds a little like what you would expect from a cartoon character such as Betty Boop. She previously appeared at The White Theatre in From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill.

Evan Jay Lovelace gives a grand performance as Gary Coleman the has-been actor who is now the superintendent for the buildings on Avenue Q and Reed Uthe is fabulous as Trekkie Monster. Other members of the cast include Andrew Joseph Brown, James Levy, Mark Murphy, Ai Vy Bui, Whitney Armstrong, Jake Leet, Ali Watson, Kelsie Clark, Ethan Platt, and Kristen Altoro. Robert Wilkes, Michelle McIntyre, Nick Yoder, Frank Annechini, Kaytee Dietrich, Debbie Allen, and Bill Brune accompany the cast. Kevin Hershberger returns to The Barn Players as the music director for Avenue Q.

Avenue Q continues at The Barn Players through May 3. Purchase tickets at The Barn Players website or at the box office the day of the show. Photo courtesy of The Barn Players.

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