The production of Avenue Q was performed by a variety of UNL students, performers who has since graduated from UNL or other universities, and local music performers and directed by Andy Park. I attended the play on opening night on Thursday March 1, 2018 at 7:30. I thought the play was well put together and performed very well, but if I had the choice, I probably would not have gone and seen it. I did like how it was a musical, but it was a little to raunchy and inappropriate for me. I found there was unnecessary foul language and some of the topics covered where a little iffy. My judgment has nothing to do with how the actors performed, it was just not my cup of tea for shows to go see.
My two favorite characters were Nicky and Princeton. I loved the actor that played Nicky. He had a beautiful voice and he was a character I couldn’t take my eyes off of whenever he was on stage. I like how whenever the puppets were acting a certain way, the human actors would also act that way too. For example when Nicky was trying to apologize to Rod for claiming he was gay, Peej (actor of Nicky) also looked sorry. This allowed me to look at the actors and the puppets. I also though Peej did a fantasy job being Trekkie Monster and his voice was perfect for it. He has a deep raspy voice and brought the vibe Trekkie needed. I found it interesting when Nicky and Trekkie were both on stage, that a woman would be Trekkie and he would still talk for him. So, sometime when they were both in the same scene, he would have to play two characters at the same time. I also found it interesting and cool how Trekkie Monster and Nicky had to have two actors play them; one on each side to display the hands. The actor that would play the other hand (not Peej), didn’t have any lines for Trekkie or Nicky and for some songs he wouldn’t even sing, he would just gesture the hand. Matthew who also played Princeton did an excellent job of displaying the many different emotions Princeton felt throughout the play; happy, sad, depressed, excited, confused. You could see it not only on the puppets face, but also his. He also had an amazing voice and you could feel the passion in his songs.
The stage was set up in a proscenium type; we sat in an upward angle watching the actors below. The area we were in was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be considering a lot of students are required to see this play. The overall setup of the stage was very nice. They did a good job of working with such a small area making it look like a rougher part of the city. I liked how there was multiple levels on the set. Like how Mrs. T lived upstairs and would walk down a ladder throughout the musical and how Christmas Eve, Brian, and Trekkie Monster also lived upstairs and would constantly be opening those windows. This allowed the audience to look around and not just stare in the middle of the stage. A couple times the actors even came out into the audience and interacted with us. Like when Christmas Eve and Brian had their wedding she walked down the aisle and when they were singing the “Money Song” they came out into the audience and asked for money (I should also add that someone gave Princeton a Runza gift card so that was pretty funny). The color scheme of the set was mostly dark, possibly displaying that times weren’t perfect and showing the oldness of the area. There were trashcans that were used as props and on the right side of the stage was what I believed to be a closed building. Later in the musical, the closed building turned into the building where Lucy performed and Princeton and Kate had their first official date. When the musical first opened, you could hear car horns and traffic moving, displaying that it was set in the city. The setting of the stage was very realistic because it had a rustic and old feeling to the city and the apartments actually looked like they could be placed in the city.
I thought the lighting was very nice throughout the play. Throughout the play, the scenes went from night and day and the lighting clearly represented that. I really liked when Rod was in his dream the got a fog machine and made like green and blue lights spin around him letting the audience know that he was dreaming and no one could actually hear him signing and dancing, it was all in his head. I also liked when Kate went to the Paris night thing that you could tell she was outside because they had lights that looked like stars all around her. Each scene the lighting was very well displayed. When it was prime daytime the lights were very bright, when it was late afternoon the lighting was a little dimmer, and a night it was darker or even completely dark with a spotlight on the characters. The lighting throughout the play brought a certain mood and allowed you to feel like you were actually there with the characters. The lighting never really changed dramatically, it was always subtle and you never really noticed it was changing. Also having a projector on a screen was interesting. I have never really thought about shows using a projector, but I think it worked very well in this instance. For example when Princeton first talked about purpose, a little definition came up on the screen, almost like we were in his head. I also thought it was funny when Lucy was in the hospital, her heartbeat was two boobs. Every little detail was thought out perfectly.
I thought the costumes of the characters were very well put together. I didn’t think they would ever change because I thought it might be hard to change a puppet fast, but surprisingly they did. For example, every character (except Mrs. T) changed their outfits for the wedding. In fact, Mrs. T was the only character who wore the exact same thing for the whole musical. I thought some of the actors who were playing the puppets outfits were interesting. I would have thought they might wear something very basic or almost similar to what the puppets were wearing. It almost looked like what they would wear just on the streets. I did like Christmas Eves and Brians outfits though. I got the vibe that they weren’t the nicest clothes, showing that they don’t have the most money, but they still were nice. I loved how Brian wore a Hawaiian shirt, I thought that was the funniest thing because I don’t know any 33 year old who wears that, only college boys. But maybe he wore that because he wants to still be and act young. His clothes specifically represented his life the best I believe. He wanted to be a comedian and so his relaxed Hawaiian shirt represented that well because it was funny looking and casual. The simplicity of each costume was nice because it displayed that none of them had a ton of money, they all were casually and brought color to the set, but not too much that it took away from the characters. Also when Lucy first was a slut, she always had a booby shirt on, but at the end of the show when she found God, she was wearing more of a modest shirt that covered her chest.
Overall, I thought this play covered many topics that most people don’t talk about but are issues in this day in age. They talked about finding a purpose, sex, race, how life is hard, and how no one really knows what they are doing. I think having the puppets cover these topics allowed from them to cover these iffy issues because it was less awkward hearing it from an inanimate object. Don’t get me wrong, the sex scene was uncomfortable, but it was a lot less uncomfortable then if it would have been two real people. Princeton, in my opinion, was the main character and I thought telling the story almost through him works nicely. He was young and fresh out of college, not really sure what he wanted to do, and I think this really connected to the audience since 90% of us there were all in college. I liked how the ending message was basically it is okay not to know you purpose because a lot of people never find or achieve it. Just by helping others find their purpose, you can feel good and ultimately that might even be your purpose. You shouldn’t be searching for it all the time, you need to live your life and that is when you will find or stumble upon your purpose. Princeton finding his purpose was definitely the conflict in the play. He ended up breaking up with Kate, sleeping with Lucy, going down a dark and bad path, all because he didn’t know what he wanted to do in life. Ultimately he helped Kate achieve her purpose and in the end he was okay with not really knowing what his was in life; all he knew is that he wanted to be with Kate and he was happy with that.
As I said before, I thought the show was good but I would have never paid money to actually go see it. It was a little strange, but I do think it covered a lot of topics that are important right now. Having puppets be most of the main characters made the show more light-hearted and allowed them to cover these topics without it being too uncomfortable and also having it be a musical made it a lot better. I personally love musicals so this is what really made me happy to see it. The show was well put together and was very easy to follow. I probably would not recommend my family to go see it because they are a little more modest, but I might tell some of my friends to go see it because some scenes were funny and the topics covered did apply to us.