Five West End alumni return for one night on 17 September to mark 20 years of Avenue Q, which now closes at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 3 January.
Five performers from earlier West End companies of Avenue Q will join the current cast for a single performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre on Thursday 17 September, marking the show’s 20th anniversary. Julie Atherton, Ann Harada, Siôn Lloyd, Jon Robyns and Giles Terera all return for the night.
The performance will be dedicated to the memory of Anna Louizos, who designed the set and died last month at 69. Her Broadway work also included In the Heights and School of Rock, and she was nominated for three Tony Awards.
Atherton played Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the original West End company and is the production’s associate director, so she will be back in a room she helped open.
The run itself now has an end date: Avenue Q plays its final performance on Sunday 3 January 2027. The production returned to London for a limited anniversary season, bringing the original Broadway puppets back with it, and was extended into the new year.
The current company is Emily Benjamin as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, Noah Harrison as Princeton and Rod, Charlie McCullagh as Nicky, Trekkie Monster and a Bad Idea Bear, Meg Hateley as Mrs T and the other Bad Idea Bear, Oliver Jacobson as Brian, Amelia Kinu Muus as Christmas Eve and Dionne Ward-Anderson as Gary.
Producers Kevin McCollum and Jamie Wilson said it had been “an absolute joy to see a new generation of audiences connect with these outrageously loveable and inappropriate puppets”, and that the show “has always celebrated the chaos of growing up, finding your place, and trying to work out what you’re doing with your life”.
The musical has music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and a book by Jeff Whitty, directed by Jason Moore, who directed the original Broadway production. The puppets were conceived and designed by Rick Lyon.
It first opened in the West End in 2006 at the Noël Coward Theatre, moved to the Gielgud and then Wyndham’s, and closed on 30 October 2010. A concert performance at the Sondheim Theatre marked its 18th anniversary in 2024.
Avenue Q runs at the Shaftesbury Theatre until Sunday 3 January 2027, with the anniversary performance on Thursday 17 September.
