Avenue Q - Sell A Door Theatre Company

Avenue Q’s been around for a while now and it’s a show I’ve been meaning to see for ages. But I only saw it for the first time this week: the UK touring production from Sell A Door Theatre Company on its stop at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre (5^th July 2016).

I really enjoyed it. A lot of it was a very funny take on the kind of twenty-something angst that I think a lot of people feel post-university. The opening lyric to one song was ‘What do you do with a BA in English?’. I have a BA in English, and it’s a question I still haven’t really answered satisfactorily, ten years after graduation.

Right now, my answer would appear to be: get a job to pay the bills – preferably one you don’t hate; read books on the commute to and from said job; write a blog about your occasional visits to the theatre.

Well, it’ll do for now.

And that’s what Avenue Q’s final message was. Yes, it’d be great to have a ‘purpose’ (a concept they explained Sesame Street-style on overhead TV screens), but actually most things in most people’s lives are pretty fleeting. Even Donald Trump is only ‘for now’.

So this grown-up Sesame Street, populated by unsentimental muppets who swear, drink, have sex, and sing songs about racism and internet porn, ends up being oddly reassuring.

Part pastiche, part glossy musical, part offbeat and a bit fringey – I know so many people who’d enjoy this show.

Catch it in Eastbourne until Saturday 9^th July!