2. The Performances
The cast of Avenue Q is ever changing with several cast members remaining between each tour. It very rarely has big TV or film stars in the cast (although Torchwoods Naoko Mori was part of the West End cast for a while) yet they always do a terrific job thanks largely to the bulk of the cast having a vast amount of theatre experience. Despite the performers not being very well known, theyre talented, experienced, and are clearly having a whale of a time doing the show. The most significant and novel thing about the performances in Avenue Q is that the actors playing the puppet characters are always visible alongside the puppets theyre operating. The puppets are conventional half puppets that only exist from the waist up and operated with either a rod or the actors hand but unlike in other puppet shows, the actors are always visible. This gives them a massive amount of freedom in both movement and expression when they are performing as they never have to worry about concealing themselves. Seeing the expressions on both the puppets and their performers faces simultaneously is great fun and really shows the conviction of the performers. Theyre not just operating the puppets and doing the voices. Theyre getting under the skin (or felt as the case may be) of their characters and performing the roles as themselves as well. I completely agree with actor Kerry Shales comment on the same episode of Newsnight as Mark Kermode that watching the performers use the puppets can be just as much as fun as watching the movement of the puppets itself. Its a craft that takes a lot of skill and practice and the cast always pulling it off so brilliantly is astonishing because, unlike members of the original Off-Broadway cast who has worked on some Jim Henson productions, none of UK the cast had any professional experience with puppetry before. That lack of prior experience is a clear demonstration of the amount of time and effort put into the show.