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From New York to Nether Edge: Avenue Q

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The Avenue Q cast with Sheffield Live presenter Vicky Oag

The Avenue Q cast with Sheffield Live presenter Vicky Oag

What do you get when you cross a meaning of life story, with sesame street, the muppet show and some distinctly adult humour? No, its not the start of a really bad joke but it does sum up the plot line of musical comedy Avenue Q about to hit the stage of The Lantern Theatre in Sheffield by new amateur theatre company, Cutting Edge.

And Sheffield Live 93.2FM has an interview with the cast – on today’s Communities Live show at noon.

Set on a Avenue Q in New York’s southernmost neighbourhood, the show follows new graduate, Princeton as he works out exactly what is his purpose in life.  Supported by a small cast of humans, monsters and puppets, Princeton and his new neighbours take a comedic journey through “the real issues in modern life – employment, love, politics and exactly why the internet was invented.”

Avenue Q is the first performance project of Sal Foster-Major and Gavin Usher, the people behind Cutting Edge.

Director of the show Sal says: “We set up Cutting Edge to focus on new, innovative and unusual dramatic and musical theatre productions.  Often, amateur musical performers miss out on shows that only require a small cast and we wanted to create somewhere they would give them the opportunity to perform some of the smaller but just as interesting and exciting shows.”

Musical Director Gavin adds: “We wanted to make an impact with our first show so we chose Avenue Q for the visual spectacle of the puppets, the great music and the sheer comedy of the script.  Although it is most definitely aimed at adults, it is a real feel good show with a modern twist.  Whether you love or hate musicals, you cant help but enjoy this show.”

Cast member and puppeteer Chris Hanlon is in charge of one of the colourful cast of puppets that makes this particular show so unique. “There are only 11 of us in the cast and none of us have ever done anything like this before.  Singing, dancing, acting and operating a ‘muppet’ puppet has been quite a challenge but as a cast we have laughed all though the rehearsals, the show is just so funny! We cant wait to get on stage and share it with an audience.”

As well as being the first show produced by the team at Cutting Edge, the small cast also have the kudos of claiming to be the first full scale musical  to be staged at the 84 seater Lantern Theatre.  The 120 year old venue located in Nether Edge has been home to a wide variety of performances including Tony and Olivier award nominated acts but has yet to host anything like this singing and dancing line up of 2 humans, 6 puppets, 2 monsters and 2 very cute but slightly misguided teddy bears.

What next?

  • Avenue Q, presented by Cutting Edge Theatre Company is on at The Lantern Theatre in Sheffield from the Monday 16th June to Saturday 21st June.  Tickets are available from www.lanterntheatre.org.uk or on 07788 594 133.
  • Listen to an interview with the cast  on today’s Communities Live programme, on Sheffield Live from noon-1pm (or download the podcast afterwards)

Listeners have their say in Sheffield Live! survey

“I’m proud to live in a city that has Sheffield Live! as one of its home-grown radio stations. It is a wonderfully diverse and interesting service with something for everyone.”

Wow! We’re very appreciative of these wonderful words from Sheffield Live! Listeners. The comment above was one of many received in our recent Listener Survey, which we created and ran from December to mid-January to ask listeners specific questions about Sheffield Live! – and give them the opportunity to influence some future programmes.

And we’re really grateful to those of you who completed the survey. We’ve been looking at all of your comments, feedback, suggestions and requests – and we’re looking forward to using your input to help make our output even better.

We promoted the survey on air in mentions across our programmes (our weekly listener figures are about 35,000 – 40,000 adults); online on our website and to our 3000+ twitter followers and 1600+ facebook fans; and respondents had the opportunity to win one of many prizes kindly donated by local businesses (huge thanks to these businesses too, and we know how happy you have made the winners!)

What else did listeners tell us?

Listeners love the “wide range of shows” on Sheffield Live!; presenters’ passion for their music; our diversity and variety of programming; “Interesting programmes, presenters you can relate to”;  our inclusivity; “Eclectic mix of stuff I wouldn’t hear on other radio stations”; “The freshness and the variety.”

Our listeners access the station through FM (about 60%), our internet livestream (about 40%), and podcasts (about 30% of listeners use the podcasts); they do so from home (over 60%), work (over 20%) and in the car (over 60%).

But who are they? Well, they’re varied in age:

Where are they?

How long have they been listening?

As far as preferences for types of show are concerned, we’ve got a schedule that most listeners love; in fact the eclectic and varied schedule was very well commented on.

We asked listeners about our coverage of many genres of music, as well as other programming (eg shows dedicated to mainstream and non mainstream sport, LGBT issues, arts, non-English language shows, film reviews, business, and more). For most of these categories of music and types of programming, most listeners think we have things about right.  And there are really no areas of programming in which a significant number of listeners want us to devote less time to.

But listeners (overall) do want more local music, more comedy, more debate about social issues, more arts, and more Sheffield specific-sports coverage.

The categories where ‘I’d like more than there currently is’ significantly outscored ‘it’s about right’ were ‘Comedy’ ‘Local Music’ and ‘Talk / debate about social issues’ and ‘arts programmes’ and ‘Sheffield sports coverage’.

So we’re working to increase our coverage of these areas. We’ll be appointing a head of news as part of our cross-platform media operation with Sheffield Live Television later in the year and will be able to bring listeners regular news bulletins – on radio, tv and the website.

And we’re opening a new call for programme proposals – so if you’d like to be part of our schedule – and can offer comedy, arts, sheffield sports, local music or debate programming, please get in touch!

You can download a programme proposal form here: Radio – programme proposal form [doc] or Radio – programme proposal form [text].

We found out alot more about listeners in our survey too.

Most get around Sheffield on foot and by car – but buses, trams, bikes and taxis are all used by a significant proportion of listeners.

Listeners are active in Sheffield – regularly eating out, going to gigs, clubs and pubs, going to the cinema and theatre, shopping, exercising, and enjoying Sheffield culture:

How often do you: (results show listeners who participate at least monthly – ie daily, weekly or monthly:

Listeners are hugely loyal to Sheffield Live!, with a clear majority not listening to other stations:

And the ads on Sheffield Live! have demonstrably changed the likelihood of our listeners purchasing – with over 80% of listeners saying YES about whether a specific ad had made them “more likely to purchase from / engage with the advertiser.”

Fantastic news for our advertisers too – so do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how to reach our amazing audience.

Sangita Basudev, chief executive of Sheffield Live!, commented:

“Thank you to all the listeners who took the time to complete our survey. We’re proud of the schedule of fantastic, diverse and rich programming on Sheffield Live! and we are  thrilled that so many of you expressed such positive comments about the station and our shows. We are addressing all of the comments, constructive feeedback and suggestions that you made – which will help us to make Sheffield Live! even better for you.”

Let’s close this summary of the survey with another of those wonderful listener comments:

“Sheffield Live! is going from strength-­to-­strength with its strong line-­up of programmes, which greatly demonstrate the diversity of Sheffield and its residents. It always provides something new and offers a refreshing break from the local mainstream commercial stations that refuse to break away from the mediocre and mundane. May it long continue!”