Original Avenue Q West End Cast Reunites for 20th Anniversary Performance at Shaftesbury Theatre
Five original West End company members of Avenue Q will return to the Shaftesbury Theatre on Thursday 17 September for a one-night reunion performance, joining the current cast of the musical's 20th-anniversary revival. WhatsOnStage
Julie Atherton, Ann Harada, Siôn Lloyd, Jon Robyns and Giles Terera — all part of Avenue Q's original London company when it opened in 2006 — will perform alongside the current West End ensemble. The evening marks two decades since the show first arrived in London and is dedicated to the memory of set designer Anna Louizos, whose Broadway designs are still in use in the current production.
Avenue Q is the puppet-filled musical with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and a book by Jeff Whitty. It won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway, where it ran for more than 15 years before closing in 2018. The London production opened at the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006, then transferred to the Gielgud and later Wyndham's, closing on 30 October 2010. A concert staging at the Sondheim Theatre marked the show's 18th anniversary in 2024.
The current revival — produced by Kevin McCollum and Jamie Wilson, directed by original Broadway director Jason Moore, and featuring puppets by original designer Rick Lyon — began as a limited 20th-anniversary season running from 20 March to 29 August 2026. It was subsequently extended and is now booking through to its final performance on Sunday 3 January 2027.
The current company features Emily Benjamin as Kate Monster and Lucy The Sl*t, Noah Harrison as Princeton and Rod, Meg Hateley as Mrs T and Bad Idea Bear, Oliver Jacobson as Brian, Charlie McCullagh as Nicky, Trekkie Monster and Bad Idea Bear, Amelia Kinu Muus as Christmas Eve, and Dionne Ward-Anderson as Gary Coleman.
For the reunion night, the originals step back in. Atherton was the West End's first Kate Monster; Harada, Lloyd, Robyns and Terera all performed in the founding London cast. The performance falls within the show's extended run, which the Shaftesbury Theatre — owned by Nimax Theatres — is hosting through the Christmas period and into the new year.
The dedication to Louizos adds a note of remembrance to the evening. Her set design — the cluttered Brooklyn apartment block where the show's human and puppet residents live side by side — has travelled from Broadway through every London incarnation and remains in the current production.
Tickets for the reunion performance are available through the Avenue Q West End website and the Shaftesbury Theatre box office.
