Winner of the TONY “Triple Crown” for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, Avenue Q is part flesh, part felt and packed with heart and it’s heading to The Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells from Monday 1st June to Saturday 6th June, The White Rock Theatre, Hastings from Monday 29th June to Wednesday 1st July and then to The Brighton Dome from Tuesday 22nd September to Saturday 26th September.
This laugh-out-loud musical tells the story of a recent college graduate named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. There, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie Monster (the internet sexpert), Lucy The Slut and other colorful types who help Princeton finally discover his true purpose in life!
A new cast member, and the puppeteer responsible for bringing Princeton and Rod to life, is Richard Lowe and, now that he’s had a couple of months in his role, I talked to him about life on the stage and how it feels to be upstaged by your right hand!
What’s it like to be on stage?
Gosh, well that’s a good question, but it’s also a very hard one to answer. I’m a little bit more used to it than I was when I first started but, for me it’s just great fun. There’s always this strange buzz in the atmosphere when you’re on stage because you’ve got all those people out there watching you. It’s a weird mixture of nerves and excitement.
So isn’t it a bit weird that, in Avenue Q, everyone’s trying not to look at you?
Well, yes, I suppose so. The good thing about this show, and what I like from the performing side of it, is that they haven’t tried to “blank out” the actors and make all the focus on the puppets. I think that about 98% of the focus is, and should be, on the puppets but it’s not discrediting the actors in any way.
It’s a bit odd that you’re acting “through your right hand” throughout the show but, in that way, it’s very different to anything that I’ve done before. It’s all the same skills that you would use in terms of the acting, you’re just using funny puppets.
Is it easy to take on their characters?
Yes, I guess so. The hardest thing for me as been that, normally when you’re acting, you use your whole body and you use your expressions in everything you do, but in this show you have to do it through the puppets rather than through you and, if you do too much as yourself, then it distracts the audience away from the puppets. So, in that sense it is quite difficult, but they are such fun, lively and accessible characters that it’s easy to get right in there with them.
They are not exactly Sesame Street puppets though, are they?
No, they are certainly not. I guess that’s part of the appeal and the hillarity of the show. There are these cute, fun looking puppets, exactly the kind that you might associate with Sesame Street or The Muppets, but some of the things that come out of their mouths are quite shocking. It’s more like Sesame Street for adults and teenagers!
It must also be strange to be there to “help” the puppets to talk to each other.
As a puppeteer in the show my job is to look at the puppet and not the actor so yes, I often come off stage at the end of the show and when I sit down with the other actors I realise that I haven’t really looked at them all night, even though we are just a few feet apart.
There are a few “human” characters in the show as well, and even they don’t look at you. They just look at the puppet when they have a scene together. Everything is done through the puppets and I suppose that is why the show gets away with the things it does.
And you have some great songs too!
Oh yes, the music is fantastic. It’s the same team who did the music for The Book of Mormon, so obviously the numbers are really good and the lyrics are so clever as well. The audience often leave the theatre singing the tunes, which is always a good sign – even if they are singing “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, “I’m Not Wearing Underwear today” or “The Internet is for Porn”.
If the show is so much fun to do, is it still hard work?
Oh, it’s incredibly hard work. After the first week of rehearsals I kept wondering if I would ever be able to do it because the puppetry is so difficult. It’s mainly hard work in terms of your arm muscles because you’re holding the puppet up for two hours every night and constantly moving your hand makes the muscles in your wrist get tired too.
The puppetry is a skill that all the actors have had to learn and it adds to the list of things that we all have to think about. You’ve got the acting, the singing, the choreography and then the puppets to think about as well, but the hard work does pay off and the audience reaction is so incredible that it makes all the work so worthwhile. The skill is to make it look easy, when actually it’s really hard.
When the curtain comes down, are the audience cheering for the actors or the puppets?
Well, it’s a bit of both really. We all come on with the puppets at the end and that always gets a really big cheer, but then we all get our own bows as well so it’s pretty evenly weighted. It’s nice that the audience get a chance to see the actors without the puppets in their hands because the puppets are the stars of the show and they do get a lot of attention!
Avenue Q, where the internet is for porn and everyone’s a little bit racist, is appearing at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells from Monday 1st June until Saturday 6th June, The White Rock Theatre, Hastings from Monday 29th June to Wednesday 1st July and then at The Brighton Dome from Tuesday 22nd September to Saturday 26th September. Please call the individual theatre box offices, or see their websites for times and prices.
