Theatre review: Avenue Q

After Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (both contributing music and lyrics) and Jeff Whitty's (book) Avenue Q closed (for the third time) its original West End production, my favourite musical didn't stay away too long, with smaller-scale productions and tours meaning I and a group of similarly addicted friends could keep getting our live fix. It's been away for a few years though, meaning what I think is my fourteenth time seeing it live is in fact a 20th-anniversary production of it opening at the Noël Coward (the first show to play there after the theatre had been renamed.) Now at a reduced-capacity Shaftesbury Theatre while its upper level is being repaired, original director Jason Moore returns for a show that was always being tweaked to keep up with the times, and has now had a few extra rewrites to bring it into 2026.

Theatre review: Avenue Q

It's the musical that won't go away - it was resident at three different West End theatres, then got a large-scale UK tour, a fringe debut last year and now a smaller-scale UK tour kicks off in Greenwich (its history in That New York has similarly seen it bounce on and off Broadway for years.) Anyone who's been following this blog for a while knows Avenue Q is my favourite musical and, Hamlet excepted, the show I've seen more times than any other - tonight's visit was my thirteenth. For anyone who's somehow missed the fun, Avenue Q is the story of Princeton (understudy Will Hawksworth tonight,) who moves into the titular New York neighbourhood just after graduating from college, hoping it'll be the first step in finding his purpose in life. What he gets instead is a funny, rude and touching lesson in making the best out of what life throws at him.

Theatre review: Avenue Q

I generally appreciate even the darker areas theatre takes me to, but it can be nice to have some pure fun on the horizon. And after a straight run of shows about Islamophobia, mistreated immigrants, civil war, the potential breakup of the nation, capital punishment, disturbed teenagers, nervous breakdowns and rape, you can bet I was looking forward to the return of my all-time favourite musical to the London stage: With a book by Jeff Whitty and songs by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q is the adult Sesame Street whose fans just wouldn't let it disappear from the West End, where it ran for four-and-a-half years at three different theatres (during which time I fitted in eleven trips) before finally packing its bags in 2010. Just two-and-a-half years years later and it's back, getting snapped up by Upstairs at the Gatehouse the second the fringe rights became available.