Presented by Sound Events Scotland

Review by Hunter King

Lower Hall at Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge

In 2003 a new musical came about that mashed up two media that naturally fit well together, South Park and Sesame Street. While admittedly they may not seem like media that lend themselves to each other, but understanding that Sesame Street exists to teach important life lessons, and South Park shows the raunchy, gritty, and hilarious side of reality. Avenue Q is a perfect blend of both of those things, and even though some of the humour is outdated, the show is still prescient in most areas of the show.

Sound Events Scotland is clearly a musically driven group, with the performers providing strong harmonies that would fill the room with a wall of impressive sound. Some standout numbers included “I Wish I Could Go Back To College” and “The Money Song” both of which showed the outstanding vocal chops of the cast.

Admittedly, some members of the cast were stronger than others, which at times created a bit of an imbalance between different members of the cast. Part of this was commitment to the puppetry, some actors (such as Marc Robertson as Princeton and Billy Rooney as Trekkie Monster) are more committed, flowing their performance through their puppets, while others felt more like they were limited by the fact that they had to use a puppet. In the spirit of Sesame Street the ability to make the puppet feel like a living person, rather than fabric with ping pong ball eyes, is pivotal.

Some of the jokes still land very well in 2026, especially if the show is considered as a time capsule of the early 2000’s (which aside from one perhaps too on the nose added joke in “For Now”) was the case. Songs like “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” still evoke the same cautious laughter that it did over two decades ago. One element that doesn’t seem to hold up as well is the character Christmas Eve (Zhu Meng) who is a stereotype of Asian-American immigrants. Many of the jokes at her expense feel mean, and unfortunately there were moments where Zhu didn’t seem to be in on the joke, making it feel a bit problematic.

Cast standouts included Jacob Pettifer and Euan Brown as Nicky and Rod, respectively. Their relationship over the show felt like a genuine roommate situation, where they clearly care about each other but also drive each other nuts. Overall, Sound Events Scotland put on a vocally strong production of Avenue Q, and even though some of the humour doesn’t land as well in 2026, the show is still overall quite enjoyable and worth a watch.

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