- Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q will return to Sydney next year.
- Directed by the original Australian cast member Luke Joslin, the show will tour nine cities across the country.
- The hilarious show will play at Roslyn Packer Theatre in August 2027.
It’s official: the naughty puppet show Avenue Q is returning to Australia in 2027, with the cult musical set to tour nine cities across the country from May through to October.
Its Sydney season will kick off on August 5, running for just three and a half weeks at Walsh Bay’s Roslyn Packer Theatre before wrapping up on August 29.
Created by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, who co-wrote the hilarious The Book of Mormon and was a songwriter on Disney’s Frozen, the musical is known for tackling adult themes, from racism to sexuality, using Sesame Street-style puppets.
The premise sounds strange, but it obviously works, as Avenue Q cleaned up at the 2004 Tony Awards, winning Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, and has continued to draw audiences around the world since.
The all-new Australian production will be directed by Luke Joslin, who played Trekkie Monster in the original Australian production, which premiered in Melbourne in 2009.
What is Avenue Q about?
The content warning for Avenue Q states, “contains strong language, adult themes, puppet nudity and an alarming amount of felt-on-felt action for a musical”, so you can be assured that this show will be like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
The musical follows Princeton, who is fresh out of college with a useless degree, big dreams and absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
He moves to New York City and winds up on Avenue Q, where he meets a neighbourhood of puppet misfits trying to navigate life’s mysteries, aka how to find a job, pay the bills, fall in love, survive adulthood and stop looking at porn for five minutes. Spoiler alert: they’re not very good at any of this.
The production features a whole host of hilarious and boundary-pushing songs, including The Internet is for Porn, It Sucks to Be Me, and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist. It’s strange to see puppets that may remind you of your childhood grapple with very adult themes, but somehow it works, and the result is a theatre experience that will have you crying with laughter.
The show is brought to life by a cast of just 11 performers, combining three human characters (Brian, Christmas Eve and Gary Coleman) with the other eight characters comprising a colourful cast of puppets, operated by actors in plain clothes.
You can see Sesame Street‘s influence throughout the production, with several characters serving as unmistakable parodies of the beloved children’s show. Roommates Rod and Nicky are a clear nod to Bert and Ernie, while the reclusive Trekkie Monster channels the Cookie Monster in both voice and personality.
How to get tickets
Tickets are not yet available to purchase for the show; however, you can sign up for the waitlist here to be first in line when tickets go on sale in Sydney.
We’d also recommend following their Instagram page here to stay up-to-date with any announcements.
Cover Image from Facebook.
