Not Your Parent's Puppets: Avenue Q at Manoa Valley Theatre

by Doyle Moeller

doyle moeller / KA LAMAKUA 

The odd and eclectic cast of characters sings the theme song as the play closes. Avenue Q’s cast included such oddities as Gary Coleman as the landlord, Trekkie Monster as a porn-addicted pervert, and Rod, a closeted republican day-trader. 

“Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, “The Internet is For Porn” and “It Sucks To Be Me”; Proclamations of a cynical realist - but also song titles in Manoa Valley Theatre’s latest production, Avenue Q.

doyle moeller / KA LAMAKUA 

Note the cast names: Manoa Valley Theatre
always recruits talent from the community,
so each production is inherently local. The
production follows Princeton, a recent college
graduate, as he struggles to find his purpose.
Puppeteered by Elitei Tatafu Jr., Princeton
goes from being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
to broken-hearted and in debt (but perhaps
just a bit more realistic) in the musical’s ninety
minute runtime.

The community theatre has a long history of shocking the masses. Founded in 1969 by a group of University of Hawai’i graduate students, the theatre habitually hosts classics, such as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (last showing: November 2010) as well as more risque fare like the Rocky Horror Picture Show (last showing, June 2008) and Avenue Q. With a cast including characters like Trekkie Monster (a porn-addicted shut-in), Christmas Eve (A stereotypically F.O.B.ish Asian woman), Gary Coleman (yes, that Gary Coleman) and the Bad Idea Bears, the show is sure to be a shocking one.

Billed as “ Sesame Street on Steroids,” the show does have some striking similarities, with a pair of male roommates (one whose sexual orientation is open to question,) a hairy, grumpy shut-in, and few truly innocent characters. With human characters sprinkled among the puppets, the format simultaneously comfortably familiar and surprisingly fresh.

After the first few scenes, which set the stage of Avenue Q as a last-chance type of street filled with misfits and malcontents, the real story unfolds. Princeton, a recent college graduate, has no idea what to do with his new B.A. in English. Moving into an apartment on Avenue Q because avenues A through P were too expensive, the bright-eyed graduate soon gets a taste of the real world when he loses his job and decides to, instead of job-hunting, try to find his purpose.

doyle moeller / KA LAMAKUA  

Puppets get it on too! After a booze-soaked night on the town, Princeton (top, played by Elitei Tatafu Jr, right) and Kate Monster (bottom, played by Jody Bill, left), get it on, while the rest of the cast sings “You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love)”.

“It's very relevant to those that are in the university system ... because it talks about ‘What do you do after you graduate?’ ‘What is this whole process supposed to look like?’” says Jen Dickenson, who plays Lucy the Slut in the show. She’s also a UH Manoa MFA student in youth theatre, and intends on using the puppetry skills she has acquired in this show in the near future, as she will be joining a traveling theatre over the summer.

doyle moeller / KA LAMAKUA 

Puppets can be rude too. After a song about how
Princeton’s (left, played by Elitei Tatafu Jr.) purpose
is to help others that are clueless, like the Newcomer
(right, played by Garett Taketa) the Newcomer loses
it, performs some crude gestures, and storms off,
leaving a stunned Princeton. 

The production is replete with UH alumni and students, with three current students (Garett Taketa, Cindy Hartigan, and Jen Dickenson) in the cast, one working as an assistant to the director (Morgan Lane-Tanner) and several alumni in the band and the crew.

The puppets presented unique challenges. Hair and makeup designer Greg Howell explained that the hair is just like wig hair, so that’s easy enough, but there were two puppets in particular that caused him trouble. “Most of them are fine, but there are two puppets that literally get fucked, so those get messed up every time.”

doyle moeller / KA LAMAKUA 

Princeton, sans body. The puppets require upkeep after each show, though some more than others. The puppets used were based on the original Broadway designs and each required over a hundred and twenty hours to hand fabricate.

The puppeteers quickly fade away, and before the middle of the first act audiences remark that they don’t see the people, only the puppets. With songs that are both shocking and uncomfortably true, the show offers an adult view of the world through a medium that we grew to love as kids. The story is one we can all relate to, and the characters are simultaneously two and three dimensional. Avenue Q is a production that is as appropriate for college students as it is for grandparents.

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Avenue Q is running from March 3 to April 3, with one show every Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and two shows every Saturday. The theatre can be reached at (808) 988-6131 and tickets can be purchased in person at 2833 East Manoa Road or online at http://www.manoavalleytheatre.com.