Avenue Q @ The King's Theatre, 29 June

I was first introduced to Avenue Q when a friend played me a fan favourite: The Internet Is For Porn from the soundtrack. This led me to the false prejudice that the play was nothing more than empty gimmickery fuelled by strong language and shock-value to appeal to the lowest common denominator, but…

Avenue Q, presented by a cast of cheerful Sesame Street rejects (of both human and puppet variety) to a soundtrack splicing eerily cheesy tunes with unabashedly blunt lyrics, is essentially a satire on modern life which light-heartedly engages with current issues ranging from sexual promiscuity, closeted homosexuality, the worthlessness of a humanities degree in the job market and political correctness, to a contemporary nihilism resulting from a lack of purpose in life. Needless to say, it is one of the most successful musicals of our time, and deservingly so.

The choreography (by Ken Roberson) is top brass, the book (by aptly named Jeff Whitty) is littered with artfully timed cracks, the lyrics to the songs (by conceivers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx) have funky unexpected rhymes in them, and there is something in the intonation of the actors Adam Pettigrew (as Princeton and Rod,) Rachel Jerram as (Kate Monster,) and Chris Thatcher (as Trekky Monster) which is consistently perfect as they deliver their lines on just the right side of melodrama.

The score itself does not boast of any show-stopping tunes that emblazon themselves upon the memory of the theatre-goer, however, all of It Sucks To Be Me, Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist, If You Were Gay, Schadenfreude, What Do You Do With a BA In English? and The More You Ruv Someone (The More You Want To Kill Them!) are extremely entertaining and often clever. And yes, renouncing any previous snobbery heretofore, we surrender to the hilarity of watching Trekky Monster dance to The Internet Is For Porn.

What makes Avenue Q so successful, not only at the box office but in its own right as a work of art, is the way it serves up the real concerns of our zeitgeist in a language we understand, relate to (even use!) but dressed so adroitly in contemporary humour that we never feel we’re being schooled (in fact we never quite get round to finding out what to do with a BA in English beyond a vague notion that helping others makes you feel good.) Yes, it’s a bit crude at times, but so are the times we live in! Insofar as we need theatre to show us who and where we are Avenue Q simply triumphs.