How does an adult musical comedy featuring fuzzy foul-mouthed puppets end a three-week nine-show run? With a packed house and many fans returning for a second time!
At last Sunday’s sold-out performance at the Palace Theater, the highly talented cast of Avenue Q gave their final bow to an appreciative crowd. The show won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards and was filled with an assortment of puppets, people, and a few monsters. The adult-themed humor could be dark at times, but never vulgar.
The two-hour musical tells the tale of Princeton, a young unemployed English Lit grad looking to find his purpose in life and an affordable place to live in an outer borough of New York City. He discovers both on Avenue Q.
Set in a two-story dilapidated apartment building, Princeton (voice and puppetry by Charles Bankhead Haines) rents a room from former child TV actor Gary Coleman (Alexander Knapp) and meets his future love Kate Monster (Sam Deitch).
Some of the apartment residents resemble familiar Sesame Street characters like Trekkie Monster (Kyden De Sa), a porn-obsessed version of Cookie Monster, and a pair of roommates, Rod and Nicky (Haines and De Sa). The two are reminiscent of Burt and Ernie. Other roommates that Princeton encounters are Brian (Danny Randerson), an aspiring comedian, and his Korean girlfriend, Christmas Eve (Jennie Kaneshiro).
Kate’s love interest in Princeton quickly fades after she learns of Lucy The Slut’s (Aleah Kay) one-night-stand with her boyfriend. Kate accidentally decapitates Lucy and rekindles her love relationship with Princeton in Act Two. Kate finds her purpose in life by running a Montessori school for monsters. Brian and Christmas Eve decide to move to Hawaiian Paradise Park, “a better place to live,” and Rod finally admits he’s gay.
To assist with scene transitions, a video monitor above the apartment building showed animated featurettes, a technique used by School House Rock back in the 1970s.
The cast did a terrific job presenting Robert Lopez’ (The Book of Mormon, and Frozen) music and lyrics. Several standout moments included Aleah Kay’s fabulous vocals on “Special,” which she ended with a split.
There are not enough accolades I can offer Sam Deitch. From his outstanding vocal talents and puppetry skills to his superb singing on “There’s a Fine, Fine Line,” which was the highlight song of the show, he’s a true treasure.
The show’s concluding number, “Only for Now,” sung by the eight-member ensemble, had the crowd cheering loudly and on their feet.
Bravo to the show’s director and co-producer, Larry Reitzer, who gave us another spectacular performance to remember. It was not an easy task to accomplish, especially during the County’s pandemic restrictions.
“At the time, I was told by the County that I couldn’t do rehearsals with over ten people indoors, so I had to look for a show with eight cast members, along with myself, and a stage manager,” Reitzer said during our pre-show interview. “After looking at my options, I picked Avenue Q, and since we were dealing with COVID, I wanted to do a comedy.”
Reitzer also had to train his cast to operate the puppets while singing and acting. “Cast member Alex Knapp had previous puppetry experience that he shared. We had six weeks of rehearsal, and the puppets showed up on the third week. It was a challenging transition for them to go from singing, acting, and dancing to operating a ‘live’ puppet. It went from a very comfortable place to a tense and nerve-wracking situation. We had a lot more work than I ever anticipated.”
Reitzer is looking forward to producing upcoming shows at the Palace, one opening in July, and a Fall musical with rehearsals in August. He’ll also do a show at the East Hawaii Cultural Center with auditions in July.
Avenue Q kicked off the reopening of the Palace Theater and return to live entertainment. Thanks to Mayor Mitch Roth, the historic Hilo venue can now sell to one-hundred percent capacity of its 450 seats.
Listen to an interview with Larry Reitzer
Photos: Steve Roby
About the author: Steve Roby is the editor of Big Island Music Magazine