By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Saturday 21 March (matinee), opens 16 April and runs through August 29 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)

With song titles like It Sucks To Be Me, If You Were Gay and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist, this 3-time Tony Award winner is very much an adult take on Sesame Street with puppets.

• Read on for reasons including how Avenue Q has lots of irreverent laughs and more fun-filled songs than you could shake a stick (puppet) at

We 1st saw it when it transferred from Broadway to the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End in 2006 and it remains as abrasive and funny as it was 20 years ago because it was so far ahead of its time then, influencing shows that followed including the brilliant The Book Of Mormon still going strong on the West End at the Prince Of Wales Theatre since 2013.

It’s the story of Princeton who graduates from college asking What Do You Do With A B.A In English? and winds up in New York’s rundown titular Avenue Q as we meet his colourful neighbours who have their own unique ways of getting by in a tough city.

There’s uptight Republican Rod about whom his roommate Nicky sings If You Were Gay to show his solidarity.

Kindergarten teaching assistant Kate Monster is conscious of her fur as a point of difference, catches the eye of Princeton and wants to open her own school for the little monsters.

Their relationship is complicated when Princeton meets performer Lucy The Slut (watch and listen below) during a wildly inappropriate date with Kate Monster.

There’s even a character called Gary Coleman, played by Dionne Ward-Anderson, modelled on the child actor who died in 2010 but found fame in TV show Diff’rent Strokes (catchphrase: ‘What ya talkin’ about, Willis?) and is Avenue Q‘s caretaker in the show.

It’s exactly the sort of show you might expect to find off Broadway but transferred out of the Vineyard Theatre there never looking back in 2003 and is revived here in a big budget version which has some amazing visual puppet sights.

But it’s the bawdiness of the comedy and the hilarity of the songs which sees us return to this show after 20 years with an audience which is audibly responding to some of the more emotional aspects of the production which makes it all the more enjoying.

The title of this website – monstagigz – takes its inspiration from Lady Gaga and her description of her fans as little monsters and we can’t help but wonder whether mother monsta found her inspiration here.

Warning: Avenue Q contains ‘puppet nudity’ and is exactly the sort of show you should see if you want lots of irreverent laughs and more fun-filled songs than you could shake a stick (puppet) at.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Avenue Q Tickets
• Have you seen Avenue Q before and what did you think of this it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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