Avenue Q

First published on 6 Jul 2009. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Like generations of kids, lyricist Jeff Marx grew up watching Sesame Street – learning how to count to ten, the importance of cooperation, and that C is for cookie. "It played a wonderful part in my childhood, and I missed that," recalls Marx. "We thought, wouldn't it be great to have puppet friends singing songs to help us deal with coming out of the closet, finding porn on the internet, and dealing with break-ups and unemployment?"

Marx, together with Robert Lopez and Jeff Whitty, is one of the creators of Avenue Q, the unlikely Broadway smash that has been staged in 11 countries and won several Tony Awards including Best New Musical. The show follows 22-year-old English graduate Princeton (Mitchell Butel), who arrives on Avenue Q looking for an affordable apartment to rent. Here he meets a range of human and felt characters including Kate Monster (Michala Banas), Bert-and-Ernie analogues Rod and Nicky (Mitchel Butel and Luke Joslin), and the local handyman, none other than Gary Coleman (Cherine Peck) – the former child star of sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.

Avenue Q's songlist includes such catchy and instructional ditties as 'Everyone's a Little Bit Racist', 'If You Were Gay' and the celebrated 'The Internet is for Porn', sung by a onanistic creature called Trekkie Monster ("Grab your dick and double click/For porn, porn, porn!").

Marx and Lopez first conceived Avenue Q as a TV show for the Adult Swim set but backers suggested they put it on stage instead. In March 2003 it opened in a 120-seat off-Broadway theatre, sold out its entire run and transferred to Broadway four months later, where it's still going. The Australian production is directed by Jonathan Biggins and comes to Sydney's Theatre Royal following a Melbourne season.

The unusual staging of the show involves some of the actors speaking and singing their parts while operating rod puppets. "People thought it was really neat to see the puppeteers rather than try and hide them. It's like a new form of stage magic," says Marx.  

But what did the Jim Henson Company have to say about a show featuring expletives, homosexuality and puppet sex? "Jim Henson's widow and daughter came along and lucky for us they loved it. They said, 'my God, what a love letter to Sesame Street and Jim's work – Jim would have loved this.'" (The creator of Kermit the Frog died in 1990.)

On the other hand, Marx doubts that the real-life Gary Coleman has seen Avenue Q. "Back when we were planning the TV show we wanted him to play himself, sort of like the special guest star Sesame Street always had. We were going to meet to talk about it but he never showed up and wouldn't return our phone calls."

Oddball touches such as 'Gary Coleman' singing 'It Sucks to Be Me' might never have happened, Marx believes, if they'd had any inkling of the show's success. "I've always said that by thinking small, it gave it a sort of integrity. I think that if we were trying to write a show that would beat Wicked for a Tony and be a hit all over the world then we would have played it a lot more safe. And it would have been a lot less interesting." Nick Dent