From Hamlet to bawdy humour, Avenue Q started as the idea for a late-night adult version of The Muppets but quickly became a hit musical after the producers of Rent recognised its stage potential. On national tour again, it stopped in Bradford where Leo Owen caught the show

House fronts and a backdropped city skyline, including The Empire State Building’s silhouette, place Avenue Q in a run-down New York neighbourhood. Designer Richard Evans completes this with Sesame Street style silver trash cans, lamp posts and apartment block windows that cleverly open to create miniature versions of the interiors. Two TV screens at either side of the top of the stage intermittently play comical cartoons complementing content, seemingly illustrated by Matt Groening.

The song “What Do You Do with a BA in English?” neatly opens and closes the show with the whole cast ensemble performing “It Sucks to Be Me” and a particularly nice duet from Kate Monster (Cecily Redman) and Rod (Lawrence Smith). Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx’s lyrics are blunt and taboo in tone with unexpected lines sung in sickly-sweet American vocals; the whole cast cheerfully sings “everyone’s a little bit empty inside” almost achieving an optimistic tone in “For Now”.

As the show progresses and the tone becomes more risqué, it is perhaps unsurprising to discover that Robert Lopez, later worked on The Book of Mormon with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The duet between Kate and Princeton (Smith) is the first of many numbers seeking to push the boundaries as they sing “Everyone’s a Bit Racist” and the song “Schadenfreude” comes from the German word, meaning “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune”. Rod sings “I wish you could meet my girlfriend... she lives in Vancouver... sucks like a hoover” while Trekkie Monster (Tom Steedon) assertively declares “The Internet is for Porn”, framed by a red-lit window. In a scene reminiscent of Team America: World Police spot-lit puppets get intimate in a variety of positions while Trekkie Monster masturbates from the upper window.

Despite some somewhat sticky subject-matter, Avenue Q has cheeky topical references, including a shout-out to Theresa May in the song “Only for Now” and a fuzzy feel-good moral with cast unitedly singing “When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself”. Actors play multiple puppet characters, cleverly mirroring their facial expressions. Vocals are unanimously strong with stand-out performances from Redman and Smith. More than fifteen years on since Avenue Q first opened on Broadway, it continues to titillate.