'Avenue Q' review — the legendary adult puppet musical is still a total hoot

Read our review of Avenue Q, directed by Jason Moore, now in performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre to 29 August.

Summary

• Tony-winning puppet musical Avenue Q is back in the West End
• The Shaftesbury Theatre production features a brilliant ensemble cast
• The story follows a group of young adults trying to figure out their lives
• Original Broadway director Jason Moore helms the show

When Avenue Q premiered on Broadway in 2003 – and in the West End three years later – it was sold as a puppet show for adults. And for adults, it certainly is. Avenue Q is rude. There’s sex. There’s porn. There’s bad language. Oh, and a bit of racism thrown in for good measure. Twenty years ago, it felt genuinely shocking. Today, though, with its Tony Award haul, five-year stint in the West End, its “offensive puppet” USP is less outrageous and, well, just what Avenue Q is.

But while we might arrive at the theatre prepped to see a troupe of fuzzy, big-mouthed puppets sing their hearts out and take their clothes off, it is no less of a hoot. Princeton (Noah Harrisson) wanders onto the titular New York street, fresh-faced at 22 and ready to find his “purpose”. Here, a romance sparks with the “kind of pretty, and really damn smart” Kate Monster (Lucy Benjamin), who dreams of opening her own school for little monster kids – even if the cabaret-dancing Lucy The Slut (also played by Benjamin) might catch Princeton’s eye once or twice. Elsewhere, Charlie McCullagh’s porn-loving, growling Trekkie Monster barely leaves his apartment, and Japanese therapist Christmas Eve (a deliberately dodgy-accented Amelia Kinu Muus) is desperate to get just one paying client on her books.

At its core, Jeff Whitty’s book is a story about young (and slightly less young) people who feel like they’re one step behind and are trying to work out who they should be. Directed by original Broadway director Jason Moore, the production is shaped like a big life lesson for primary schoolers. Cartoon educational videos appear on flat screens, watched by the puppets with wide-eyed enthusiasm. The best of these shows five wooden nightstands morphing into just “one night stand”, before a night of puppet passion plays out.

There are some half-hearted nods to the present, with references to AI, ChatGPT, and Trump. A Spotify playlist Princeton makes for Kate is framed as a “mixtape from the olden days”. But otherwise, things stay much the same. Even Gary Coleman – the character based on the real-life former child star who was ripped off by his parents – still makes an appearance. But in 2026, with Coleman’s celebrity fading, it is a gag that loses almost all its recognisable context.

Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx’s tongue-in-cheek songs still send the audience into fits of nervous laughter. “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” might overlook systemic racism entirely, but taken as a feast of Noughties nostalgia, it remains a proper hit. “Schadenfreude” has us wondering whether seeing other people suffer actually makes us feel better. And Kate Monster’s big number, “A Fine, Fine Line”, is a neat parody of all musical ballads that have come before and after it.

With a cast as strong as this one, it is difficult not to be wowed by the cutesy charm of it all. Rick Lyon’s cuddly puppets are animated into existence by an ensemble who have the dance of it all down to a tee. The standout is Noah Harrison, who moves between Princeton and the closeted gay puppet Rod with such extraordinary skill that it takes a while to realise he is playing them both: essentially, he was made to voice puppets.

In a world full of doom and gloom, Avenue Q is a furry tonic shot. Yes, things are bad, it tells us. But all of it is only “for now”. And, if a puppet telling you that doesn’t make you smile, who knows what will?

Avenue Q is at the Shaftesbury Theatre to 29 August. Book Avenue Q tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Avenue Q (Photos by Matt Crockett)