Erin Harvey as Mrs. Thistletwat in Avenue Q. Photo Nanc Price.

I’ve now seen three productions of the Robert Lopez / Jeff Marx / Jeff Whitty musical Avenue Q. I saw the Off-Broadway transfer in New York in 2014, and the Citadel Theatre production in 2015. And when I first saw the announcement that Foote in the Door would be doing it in 2024, I had no trouble remembering various catchy tunes from the show, and more trouble getting the earworms out of my head afterwards.

As I wrote after seeing it Off-Broadway, it’s like Rent crossed with St. Elmo’s Fire for audiences who grew up with Sesame Street puppetry, a combination that’s hard to picture until you’ve seen it or are familiar with the cultural phenomenon.

Ten years later, many audience members already know what to expect. The Foote in the Door production, directed by Trish Van Doornum, opened last night at Théâtre Servus Credit Union, to a full and enthusiastic house. I had wondered if some of the elements would require shock-value to be appreciated – “The Internet is for Porn”, Christmas Eve and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, and the puppet sex scene, in particular – but I thought the opening-night crowd was delighted whether or not they were caught by surprise. Christmas Eve, in the original production, sings “I coming to this country for opportunities, Tried to work in Korean deli, but I am Japanese!” and her speeches are full of comedic L-R switching and English-language-learner patterns. Those tropes are getting old – but in the Foote in the Door show, Christmas Eve is performed by Sunshine Bautista Mauricio, whose overall sass, determination, and compassion were more significant than the stereotypey trope. That early line is changed to “Tried to work in Korean deli, but I am Filipino!” (maybe she said Filipina, but I couldn’t hear clearly since the crowd was laughing and cheering). A couple of places later in the show, she says rude things to her husband in a language I don’t understand (Tagalog?) but some audience members definitely did. Those changes improved the show for me, demonstrated that it wasn’t just about entertaining white people.

The current production uses a cast of nine performers, and I was especially impressed by the work of some of the ensemble members I was less familiar with. Erin Harvey (last seen in Walterdale’s Austentatious) was a puppeteer playing Mrs. Lavinia Thistletwat, occasionally covering Kate Monster, Lucy, and a Bad Idea Bear, with a hand in Russ Farmer’s embodiment of Nicky. The scenes where Kate and Lucy interact, with Ruth Wong-Miller doing both voices, fascinated me because my eyes kept fooling me about who was talking for which puppet character. Jay Duiker, whom I remembered as the Baker in FITD’s early-2022 Into the Woods, had a strong voice and good comic timing for wannabe-standup-comic Brian. Renell Doneza (with previous credits ranging from Walterdale’s Altar Boyz to the Citadel’s Prison Dancer) embodied various ensemble characters, and watching his own physicality as a contrast to the puppet Rod’s repressed rigidity was very clever. Jayden Leung, also credited with the video montages used in the show, was the remaining ensemble puppeteer, playing various characters including part of Trekkie Monster. Lead-puppet Princeton was performed by Stephen Allred, whose FITD resume started with an insightful interpretation of Laurie in the 2017 Little Women. And the building super Gary Coleman, often played by a woman, was Malachi Short, whom you may recall from Elope’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last year. Short, Harvey, and Leung are all current students in MacEwan University’s BFA in Musical Theatre Performance, and ones to watch in future years.

There’s one bit in the show where Princeton decides to collect donations to fund another character’s dream, and he motivates other characters to pass the hat running up and down the theatre aisles. When I saw it in New York, the meagre takings that they counted afterwards included a Metro card (subway pass) – I wasn’t sure if that was scripted or not. Well, last night they pulled an ARC Card (local transit pass) out of the hat, so I guess I have my answer. And then after the curtain call, company co-founder Ruth Wong-Miller told the audience that the takings from the hat-passing, plus anything else we wanted to add to the ASMs’ hats in the lobby, would be donated to the Youth Empowerment & Support Services, who operate the Youth Emergency Shelter and other programs in the neighbourhood. This struck me as a great choice, not just for being hyperlocal but for building on the sympathies for the characters in the story, who are mostly a step or two away from the outcomes of the characters in Rent but who are still young and with limited resources. (So take some money, and not just for the concession!)

Avenue Q is full of short songs with lyrics that you might not want to sing at your recital, and musical-theatre melodies and harmonies that are hard to get out of your head. All the voices were strong, and the sound-mixing was well done (which I can’t always say on opening nights). Almost all the audience members near me managed to resist checking Oiler-score updates during the show – giving us a satisfying end to the evening in more ways than just a fun performance with happy and credible futures for the various characters.

Leland Stelck has designed a functional and interesting streetscape set, in the style of Sesame Street or In the Heights, and the musical ensemble directed by Grace Huang are visible downstage and occasional participants.

Avenue Q runs until June 8th, but several performances are already sold out. Remaining tickets are available here.