The touring cast of "Avenue Q" came to the Michigan Theater Monday night for a sold-out performance.

The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Avenue Q” has been called “Sesame Street” for adults. And while watching the touring production that hit the sold-out Michigan Theater for 1 show on Monday night, I was reminded of the aptness of this description.

Not only because several of the main characters are puppets — some of whom resemble specific “Sesame Street” characters — but also because the 2-hour show entertains while making you feel a little better about yourself and the world.

In the show, a hopeful college grad named Princeton (Brent Michael DiRoma) arrives in New York City and finds an apartment on Avenue Q. Soon, he befriends Kate Monster (Jacqueline Grabois), who dreams of finding love and opening her own school for monsters; struggling, Japanese therapist Christmas Eve (Lisa Helmi Johanson) and her aspiring stand-up comic fiancée, Brian (Tim Kornblum); feuding roommates Rod (DiRoma) and Nicky (Michael Liscio, Jr.); and building superintendant Gary Coleman (Nigel Jamaal Clark).

So why did the show’s creators — Jeff Whitty (book), Robert Lopez (music and lyrics) and U-M grad Jeff Marx (music and lyrics) — decide to use puppets to tell the story? Perhaps because it brings an immediate lightness to the proceedings, even as the show addresses touchy issues like racism, homosexuality and pornography. (How else could “Q” get away with a jaunty little head-bopping number called “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” as well as a Japanese character that trades in stereotypes for laughs?)

The puppets visually signal that we shouldn’t take any of this too seriously, and in this way, “Q” subtly earns the good will necessary to make some politically incorrect jokes while also making salient points.

Using puppets also, of course, makes “Q”’s expletives and graphic sexuality feel doubly naughty. Because we associate puppets with children’s entertainment, seeing 2 of them “go at it” in bed, and hearing many of them curse, is disarming and comically shocking.

All the performers in this touring unit were terrific and highly polished, but DiRoma’s work with Rod, in particular, was a highlight. Rod — a closeted investment banker and Republican who’s secretly in love with his straight roommate — has moments of hilarity and heartbreak, and DiRoma masterfully nailed them all. From Rod’s hysterical, waiting-for-validation moment at the end of “My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada” to his painful confession to Christmas Eve, the character was so powerfully realized that — and I’m not proud of this — a puppet nearly made me cry.

Interestingly, although the actors working with puppets are fully visible, you find yourself either wholly focused on the puppet, or watching both the actor and puppet in tandem. And in the non-puppet realm, Johanson provided Christmas Eve with pluck and heart, while Clark was truly marvelous as Coleman, doing a pretty mean impersonation of the former child star's voice and mannerisms.

I’d seen the original production of “Q” on Broadway in 2004, and since then, I’d forgotten not only how skillfully the show balances its sweet and sour elements, but also how it refuses to embrace easy answers or talk down to its audience, despite the presence of puppets. (The Michigan Theater audience, by the way, was as diverse in age as just about any I’ve seen, which speaks to the show’s broad appeal.)

Princeton, who’s stuck on finding his “purpose,” realizes that he, like so many of us, may just never figure that out; the song “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” ends with a reality check, wherein the singers imagine going back to campus and feeling old, because ultimately, you can’t go back; and the closing song, “For Now,” emphasizes that, good or bad, anything you’re presently going through is temporary and liable to change (for fans of the show who might be wondering, the original lyric “George Bush/is only for now” has been updated with “Glenn Beck”).

This final message is a mixed blessing, to be sure; but at least it’s one that’s grounded in reality while reminding us to be grateful for good times, and to just hold on, as best we can, through the bad times.

A pretty thoughtful takeaway for a puppet show.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.