Theater review: Avenue Q at Bass Hall isn’t kids’ stuff, but it’s funny with a capital letter F

by Catherine Cuellar

FORT WORTH — Though the brownstones that line Avenue Q may resemble the set of Sesame Street, when a puppet drops an F-bomb during the show's second song, it's clearly closer to Broadway than the Children's Television Workshop. In Fort Worth, where Casa Mañana's production of the Tony-award winning musical opened Tuesday, crowds who once adored Jim Henson's Muppets (and their parents) were richly rewarded with frequent hearty laughs inspired by those true originals. An ensemble cast of seven actors and puppeteers animating and voicing handfuls of characters offered an irreverent, risqué, and thoroughly amusing take on masturbation, racism, homosexuality, and other themes parents will always be uncomfortable discussing with their kids.

Unlike Muppeteers hidden from view on the big and small screen, the singing and acting puppeteers in Avenue Q are in plain sight, giving the characters legs (literally and figuratively). The crowd sees Robert McClure's amazing expressive range as both Rod -- an uptight, effeminate Republican -- and Princeton, a recent college graduate welcomed to his new neighborhood by Kate Monster (the versatile Maggie Lakis -- who in several scenes voiced conversations between two characters at once). Though he wasn't in a leading role, David Benoit managed to hold viewers' attention in his every scene, whether playing the pervy curmudgeon Trekkie or Rod's slovenly roommate Nicky.

The show premiered in 2003 and is beginning to show its age (with George W. Bush as a punchline and references to a crush-made "mixtape"). Strategic screens feature videos throughout that combine Robert Smigel-style sight gags with the edu-tainment of Schoolhouse Rock, augmented by full ensemble performance of songs like "The Internet is for Porn." At moments it was a bit hard to hear dialogue in the cavernous Bass Hall, and laughter and applause drowned out several rapid-fire one-liners. Musically, songs about relationships and sex are better left to The Pretenders or Liz Phair, while sillier topics ("What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?") fare far better in this format. Still, for anyone who grew up or parented in the '70s, Avenue Q is a must-see for its innovation in staging alone, even if some subject matter flirts (for sheer shock value) with the inappropriate and offensive.

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