Tuesday, June 14, 2016

reviews - AVENUE Q - Phoenix Theatre

Toby Yatso
photo: Matt Chesin/Phoenix Theatre

highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

Click here for more information on this production that runs through July 10th.

"...The three-time Tony Award winner returns to...Phoenix Theatre....and judging from the reaction of a packed matinee house on its opening weekend, it will almost certainly return for a fourth visit sometime down the road.  It’s an audience favorite, and for good reason; this is a top-notch musical production with an assured ensemble that knows exactly what it’s doing.  Without a single lull in its two hour running time, it is so much fun....The majority of players were in previous Q productions.  With training while working with puppets from the original Broadway designer...it all goes to help explain why everyone appears so professionally accomplished.  Toby Yatso, Emily Mulligan Ferry, David Errigo Jr., Laurie Trygg and newcomer to Phoenix Theatre, Caitlin Dhuse are simply superb.  And it’s not just their actions or expressions; it’s also their voice work.  Often one operator voices two characters in the same conversation, yet the illusion is never broken.  In a show such as Avenue Q it would be unfair to rank one above the other.  It’s an ensemble, and the ensemble works....director/choreographer Robert Kolby Harper brings...(a) distinctive sense of fluid, choreographed movement to Avenue Q....what a delight it is to take pleasure in witnessing a production as surprisingly adept and as continually laugh-out-loud funny as this, and how often does a show create so many genuine belly laughs between the songs, and sometimes during them?  On this Avenue Q, Yatso and co deserve that standing-o.  And don’t forget: Adults Only. " -David Appleford, Valley Screen and Stage (click here to read the complete review)

"Phoenix Theatre revives for the third time its hysterical production of the wacky “Avenue Q.”  ..a brightly-paced ensemble who deliver “Avenue Q” with jabbingly amusing fervor.  ...The lippy and often vulgar dialogue has been crafted by canny book author Jeff Whitty but the show never offends or insults.  It just creates raucous laughter as it mocks routine things done every day.  Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx’s clever songs are loaded with the same biting candor....the production’s success is attributable to PT’s exemplary cast, the perfect set, and Robert Kolby Harper’s quick-paced staging that adds additional humor to the piece. ..Everyone in the cast is perfection from Toby Yatso’s sharply inhibited Princeton and his more flagrant Rod.  Yolanda London sparkles as the wacky Gary Coleman while David Errigo, Jr. makes Trekkie Monster and Nicky wildly flamboyant.  Emily Mulligan Ferry turns Kate Monster and slutty Lucy into hysterical stereotypes while Erin Kei’s Christmas Eve and Pete Good’s Brian are a formidable couple.  Phoenix Theatre’s superbly humorous “Avenue Q” earns five stars out of five" --Chris Curcio, KBAQ (click here to read the complete review)

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