It sucks to be me or anyone else sitting in the Gates Abegglen Theatre. Entertainment and acceptance may be the ineffective purpose of this disturbing, bad acting Broadway musical. But maybe the most noticeable part is that it is not easy sitting through a musical full of bad acting and scenery that fails at telling a scene. There are irritating puppets, overly animated characters and actors that forgot how to act, but the musical truly soars on rare occasions when the costumes portray the character to a tee. On Thursday, April 16, 2015 Miami University’s “Avenue Q” directed by Saffron Henke left me on the edge of my seat—wanting to leave. The actors successfully addressed acceptance for various social issues but in an unentertaining way.
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The duel identity of the puppets made the actor disjointed from the puppet—if the puppet looked away, the actor did not. At times the puppet and actor seemed like two separate characters. Not only were the puppets obstructing the potential of the musical, but also Gary Coleman was overly animated. He might as well have been a puppet because he was far from acting like a human. He looked like he was having a seizure standing up—pretty sure humans do not bounce uncontrollably while standing. Overall, Gary Coleman and the puppets distracted the entertainment. More specifically, the acting was disordered—I did not know I was at a dress rehearsal. Christmas Eve’s voice was a mix of an Italian, Asian, and Polish accent. Luckily her hair and makeup resembled a Japanese woman because her voice most definitely did not. In the porn scene, Trekkie Monster forgot to close the top window, which was noticeably distracting during the rest of the scene. At Around the Clock Café, Kate dropped the long island ice tea; at the wedding, Christmas Eve tried to throw the bouquet but missed; during “Purpose,” the random boxes were not evenly spaced and not lined up; in the hospital scene, Kate Monster messed up a line which she did not cover up and adlib; and when Lucy was hit with the penny, her reaction was delayed and forged. All these little mistakes were very noticeable. The whole musical, rather than enjoying the
The duel identity of the puppets made the actor disjointed from the puppet—if the puppet looked away, the actor did not. At times the puppet and actor seemed like two separate characters. Not only were the puppets obstructing the potential of the musical, but also Gary Coleman was overly animated. He might as well have been a puppet because he was far from acting like a human. He looked like he was having a seizure standing up—pretty sure humans do not bounce uncontrollably while standing. Overall, Gary Coleman and the puppets distracted the entertainment. More specifically, the acting was disordered—I did not know I was at a dress rehearsal. Christmas Eve’s voice was a mix of an Italian, Asian, and Polish accent. Luckily her hair and makeup resembled a Japanese woman because her voice most definitely did not. In the porn scene, Trekkie Monster forgot to close the top window, which was noticeably distracting during the rest of the scene. At Around the Clock Café, Kate dropped the long island ice tea; at the wedding, Christmas Eve tried to throw the bouquet but missed; during “Purpose,” the random boxes were not evenly spaced and not lined up; in the hospital scene, Kate Monster messed up a line which she did not cover up and adlib; and when Lucy was hit with the penny, her reaction was delayed and forged. All these little mistakes were very noticeable. The whole musical, rather than enjoying the