The self-styled puppet musical looks set to repeat its award winning Broadway success in London, despite a few snippy reviews from the mainstream critics who simply didn’t ‘get’ the sheer fun and undiluted pleasure of this fresh new show.

Avenue Q has ‘cult’ stamped all over it and it’s the perfect product for a younger audience (and I count people in their 30s in this bracket!) who think the theatre, and more specifically musicals, aren't for them.

It’s also definitely not a show to take your parents to. I mean, there’s hard-core puppet sex, drinking, swearing and the characters enthusiastically declare that the internet is for porn!

As it’s creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx say in the programme, “We felt we wanted to do something relevant for people of our own age, knowing that for the most part they don’t go to musicals… So we sought to find a way around this so we could create a musical to communicate our love for the art form without it being the kind of thing that people didn’t like.”

And they have, with cute, colourful creatures that get away with saying an awful lot more than ‘real’ actors ever could, leaving you laughing (and a little open jawed) at the pure audacity of these creations.

But where Avenue Q hits the nail so wonderfully on the head is in cunningly mixing the familiar, educational style of Sesame Street with a strictly modern subject matter - juxtaposing jaunty, sing-a-long melodies with terribly un-PC ideas that are at first a little shocking, but absolutely spot on: ‘Everyone's a Little Bit Racist’, ‘It Sucks to Be Me’ and ‘The More You Love Someone (The More You Want to Kill Them)’.

It’s a clever concept as we immediately buy into its easily recognisable charms, giving is an excuse to relax and enjoy the wicked and sometime puerile humour as an eclectic group of friends (some monsters, some puppets and some human) try and find their purpose in life before it’s too late.

But ultimately it’s about living for the moment, accepting people for what they are and realising that life isn’t a bed of roses and things can, and will get shitty. But hey, loosen up because it’s only for now…

Avenue Q also has one of the best coming stories of any drama as the up-tight and closeted Rod denies his sexuality and his best friend’s support – a guy who Rod secretly fantasies about at night - and his urging that, “If you were gay, That'd be okay. I mean 'cause, hey, I'd like you anyway.” Modelled on Bert and Ernie’s relationship in Sesame Street it’s a touching friendship and nicely twists the coming out tale into a tale of real acceptance.

So what does the letter Q stand for in Avenue Q? Quirky, quick witted and quintessentially queer.

Avenue Q, by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx
Noël Coward Theatre (formerly the Albery Theatre)
St Martin's Lane
London, WC2N 4AH
0870 850 9175

Opened 28 June 2006

Can’t make it to the theatre – shame on you! – then by the original Broadway cast recording of Avenue Q. Go on, it's a riot!