The Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s rendition of Tony award-winning puppet musical “Avenue Q” was a hit with the audience at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater opening night. The mature-audiences-only comedy, directed by Wendy Sielaff, had virtually everybody in the crowd laughing at every single dirty joke and funny song.

A lot of the look, sound, and style of the musical is like an adult version of "Sesame Street," although there is no direct connection with the kids' show. The story follows a ragtag group of neighbors, some of which are played by puppets and others by real actors, after newcomer Princeton moves to Avenue Q in search of his “purpose.”

Not only are the characters and setting like "Sesame Street," there are tons of nods to the show sprinkled throughout “Avenue Q.” Even as the audience filed into their seats before the show, a large projection screen showed lewd, humorous pictures for each letter in the alphabet along with the famous phrase; “Today’s show is brought to you by the letter...”

Ultimately, the musical was packed with valuable lessons about friendship, acceptance, love, and living in the moment that people are never too old to learn.

A hilarious adult comedy, "Avenue Q" is also packed full of dirty jokes, mischief, and humorous commentary on our everyday struggles. And If you ever wondered what puppets look like naked, here is your chance to find out. The “nude” scene is one of the funniest in the entire show.

The combination of actors playing real people and actors dressed in black holding puppets makes for a unique theatergoing experience. Since the puppets are only torso-up, the actors move along with them, and their facial expressions add a lot to the characters' personalities.

The Civic Theatre cast did a superb technical job manipulating the puppets. It was not difficult to imagine that the puppets and puppeteers were singular beings. Another impressive feature of the play is the characters' various Muppet-like accents, which the actors maintained well throughout the musical’s many songs.

The puppets appearing in the musical include Princeton (Nick Bringardner), Kate Monster (Kelly Fandrey), Lucy the Slut (Marci Rosenberg), Rod (Bob Cox), Nicky (Andrew Szykula), Trekkie Monster (Erik Wright-Olsen), and the Bad Idea Bears (Catherine Cypert and Connor Rhoades). Their puppetry skills were honed by Kyle Farr, the director of puppetry.

The actors playing real people shone just as brightly as the colorful, bouncy puppets. Gary Coleman (Keshia Daisy Oliver) is the superintendent of Avenue Q, and Brian (Jeff Foust) and Christmas Eve’s (Lisa Lee) love blooms on the block.

After the opening night performance, attendee Jon Darga said he thought the Civic Theatre’s rendition of “Avenue Q” “had a very high production quality. The set was wonderful, and the puppets were really great too,” he said.

“Growing up with 'Sesame Street,' it was really fun to go from that to having an adult version to watch too,” said opening night audience member Hilary Wolkan. “The show was great because it talks about real things that are going on right now, like in the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” and we can laugh about it.”

Janet and Michael Vogel agreed that the musical is “hilarious and absolutely creative.” “The coordination between the singing, the puppeteering, and the acting was really well done,” he said. “It’s one thing to act and sing, but to do puppets too! They were marvelous and very talented young men and women,” she said.

"Avenue Q" continues through Sunday at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater, 911 N. University Ave. in the Michigan League. Buy tickets online at www.a2ct.org, through the Ann Arbor Civic Theater’s box office phone at 734-971-2228, or at the door.