<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div class="" align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3071"><b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3073" class="">Picaresque Puppetry<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3075" class=""></o:p></b></div><div class="" align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3071"><b class=""><br></b></div><div class="" align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3077">By Tom Wachunas<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3079" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3081"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3083" class=""> </o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3085"> Remember Bert,
Ernie, and Cookie Monster? Imagine each one married, raising children who were
happy, hopeful, and secure in their beloved Sesame Street neighborhood. Then
imagine the frustrations of those children as 20-somethings on their own and
who, encountering a world terribly different from the one they envisioned as
kids, find themselves destitute and lonely on a far-flung, shabby street in New
York City. What’s this ‘lost generation’
to do? To paraphrase a song from <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3087" class="">Avenue
Q, </i>the Broadway musical that premiered in 2003 (music and lyrics by Robert
Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty), it sucks to be them.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3089" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3085"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3091"> Most of the characters are Muppet-styled rod
puppets, with their human operators always clearly visible with them on stage.
For this production by Canton’s Players Guild Theatre, Steve Parsons not only
conducts the sparkling six-piece, off-stage orchestra, but also directed the
amazingly gifted cast in a comical romp that starts in frolicsome overdrive
(choreography by Michael Lawrence Akers) and rarely slows down. The intimacy of
the Guild’s arena theater allows the audience to admire at close range the cast
members’ delightful abilities to let their puppets be their syncopated,
empathetic partners in expressivity. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3093" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3091"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3095"> So who are these partners? The affable Princeton
(Matthew Heppe) is a recent college graduate ardently seeking his purpose in
life, and conflicted about his budding relationship with Kate Monster (Abigail
Riley), equally conflicted as she dreams of founding “Monstersori” – a special
school for monsters only. The chemistry between Heppe and Riley is quite
marvelous – a piquant blend of vulnerability and youthful hope. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3097" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3095"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3099"> Additionally
there’s Rod (Vincent Sisely), a tightly-wound banker and closeted gay, constantly
at odds with his straight, lazy roommate, Nicky (Stephen Berg). The hermitic,
strangely endearing, and porno-addicted Trekkie Monster (Adam Cerrezuela) lives
upstairs. Lucy the Slut (Sarah Marie Young) is a sultry and intrusive temptress
in the style of Mae West at her most lascivious. Then there are the relentless
Bad Idea Bears (Craig Joseph and Alexis Long), mischievous critters who live up
to their name by implanting pernicious impulses in their vulnerable victims.
Joseph’s frenetic facial and vocal contortions constitute a gut-splitting
performance unto itself. </div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3099"> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3101" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3103"> Three actually
human characters round out the Avenue Q tenants: Brian (Brian O. Jackson), an
unemployed would-be comedian; his Japanese fiancée, Christmas Eve (Mary
Sheridan), a therapist looking for clients; and the apartment building
superintendent, ex-child star Gary Coleman (Tiffeny Brown). </div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3111"> Among the witty
and/or wickedly cynical tunes (such as <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3113" class="">Everyone’s
A Little Bit Racist, </i>and <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3115" class="">The Internet
is for Porn)</i> that pepper this
gluttonously funny feast of a show, none seems more illustrative of its overall
aesthetic than <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3117" class="">There’s</i> <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3119" class="">a Fine, Fine Line. </i>Riley’s Kate Monster
leads one of the evening’s more poignant
and anxiety-filled scenes at the end of Act I when she sings, with her
astonishingly sweet and crystalline tonality, “There's a fine, fine line
between a lover and a friend; There's a fine, fine line between reality and
pretend…” Later in Act II, Mary
Sheridan’s Christmas Eve, responding to Kate Monster’s frustration with
Princeton’s fear of commitment, provides a hilarious quasi-counterpoint when
she strides about the stage like a sarcastic opera diva, intoning <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3121" class="">The More You Ruv Someone </i>(the more you
want to kill them). <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3123" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3111"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3125"> That said, while fine
lines can require careful walking, this show crosses several with cavalier if
not disturbing ease - lines between compelling satire and insipid parody, between
the venerable and the vulgar. Speaking of the latter, satire or not, and despite
the paroxysms of laughter elicited from the house, did we really need to see
the ribald enactment of Kate and Princeton’s one-night stand? Fornicating
puppets…<i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3127" class="">seriously?</i> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3129" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3125"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3131"> After a while, the
“off-color” humor gets to be just that. Call it a raucous monotone, which tends
to overshadow any truly dramatic authenticity in those coming-of-age moments
late in the show when these angst-riddled neighbors manage to find sustainable
resolutions to their respective situations. Sure, there are a few references to
Jesus and selfless service to others, but they come off a little bit like
disingenuous afterthoughts amid so much existential insouciance. Like whistling
in the dark. But I think the fault, should you perceive it as such, lies in the
writing, not the performing.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3133" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3131"><br></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3135"> In the end, I
ended up caring about these characters if only because, 13 years after their
inception, they still reflect the flaws and wounds of a culture navigating life
without a steady moral compass. Belly laughs aside, I want that culture to
experience not just the cautionary jubilance voiced in the show’s closing
number, <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3137" class="">Only For Now, </i>but more
importantly, an unequivocal surrender to a Divinely appointed forever. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3139" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3069"> <span style="text-align: center;"> </span></div><div class="" align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3148"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3150" class=""> </o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3152"> <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3154" class="">Avenue Q, </i>at the Players Guild Theatre (in
the W.G. Fry Theatre) <b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3156" class="">runs</b> <b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3158" class="">through
Sunday March 13, 2016</b> / Friday and Saturday performances at 8:00pm, Sunday matinees
at 2:00 PM. Tickets: $26.00 for adults, and $23.00 for seniors. Tickets may be purchased online 24 hours a
day at <a href="http://www.playersguildtheatre.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3160" class="">www.playersguildtheatre.com</a>
or in person at the Players Guild Box
Office, located in the Great Court of the Cultural Center for the Arts, 1001
Market Ave N. By phone:
330-453-7617. <b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3162" class="">Please note, due to adult content this production
is intended for mature audiences only</b>.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3164" class=""></o:p></div><div class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3166"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3168" class=""> </o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3025">
</div><div class="" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3170"> For other
commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the performing and visual arts in the Canton
area, please visit his blog, ARTWACH, at <a href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3172" class="">www.artwach.blogspot.com</a> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1456918928825_3174" class=""></o:p></div></div></body></html>