Published: April 30, 2008 04:22 pm            

THEATER: 'Avenue Q' reviewed

What “Team America: World Police” started in the movement to improve puppets’ reputations, “Avenue Q” perfected.

Like the R-rated movie about a team of puppets fighting terrorists, “Avenue Q” uses puppets to take a frank yet humorous look at life.

The touring version of the Broadway show, which is in town this weekend, chronicles a young man’s (or puppet’s, or whatever) search for purpose in life after graduating from college. Upon finding an apartment on the low-rent outskirts of New York City, he comes across a group of friends (including a former child star who works as his building’s superintendent) who help him.

The plight of Princeton is chronicled from the musical’s first moments, when he introduces himself to the audience by singing “What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?” Much of “Avenue Q” takes a similarly humorous yet reflective look at life, with songs such as “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and “The More You Ruv Someone,” a tune sung by an Asian-American about how one’s desire to harm their mate increases as they spend more time together.

Princeton falls for his neighbor, Kate Monster, a kindergarten teaching assistant who longs to open up her own school for monsters. They end up together and, thanks to the Bad Idea Bears — two cuddly bears who like to give Princeton the worst possible advice — have a romantic interlude that leads to Kate’s firing after she oversleeps.

That’s where the musical’s message really starts to take shape. While using a lot of language that can’t be included in this review (including a song debating the Internet’s primary use), “Avenue Q” is meant to teach a lesson, especially to twentysomethings who lack guidance in their life.

That can’t be summed up any better than by the song “For Now,” which is sung at the show’s end and tells the characters that they’ll always have unpleasant things they need to do but they won’t last.

“Avenue Q” leaves some of its characters’ fates in limbo, which echoes the life lesson its creators intended to teach. Life is basically a bunch of stuff that happens, and the key is for each person to find a way to enjoy as much of it as possible.

        

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