On Tuesday, the Marshall Artists Series brought the touring production of the Broadway musical "Avenue Q" to Huntington's beautiful Keith-Albee Theater.

The show delivered laughs from the opening line -- "What do you do with a B.A. in English?" -- all the way through to the closing. Not all jokes were gut-busters, but they were steady enough to keep the near-capacity audience laughing almost constantly.

An R-rated spin on "Sesame Street," the show centers on recent college graduate Princeton, who's seeking his life's purpose, and his neighbors on the titular Avenue Q. Most of these characters are puppets. Some are monsters. One is even Gary Coleman.

They all sing about their miseries ("It Sucks to Be Me"), their dreams ("Fantasies Come True") and their lives in general. Standout songs are about the Internet's true purpose ("The Internet is for Porn"), closeted homosexual Rod's fake lover ("My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada"), the reason why it's funny to laugh at others' misfortunes ("Schadenfreude") and racism ("Everyone's a Little Bit Racist").

Unlike "Sesame Street," the actors controlling the puppets are visible. They are just as key to the show as the puppets themselves. Their performances -- both verbally and visually -- really bring the puppets to life, allowing you to transpose the emotions on their faces onto the puppets. Several actors, including the two leads, also voice multiple puppets, which is all the more impressive.

Particularly great were Princeton/Rod puppeteer Brent Michael DiRoma, who makes his touring debut with this show, though you'd never know it from his performance, and Jason Heymann, who voices and controls three puppets, including Trekkie, the hilarious Oscar the Grouch/Cookie Monster hybrid. On the human side, Lisa Helmi Johanson was perhaps the biggest laugh getter as a Japanese woman named Christmas Eve.

All the action takes place on a set that's both simple and multi-faceted. Most of the time, it's just the façade of apartment buildings, but when necessary, parts of it become bedrooms, a nightclub and even the Empire State Building.

Monitors on both sides of the stage broadcast fun, "Sesame Street"-like graphics and "lessons" at times. They also add to the hilarity on stage in the aftermath of Lucy the Slut's tragic accident.

The only problem was that lines weren't always audible to everyone, leaving some of us wondering what the heck other people were laughing at. Also, during songs, laughter sometimes drowned out subsequent verses. But that's hardly a bad problem for a show to have.

Because its main characters are puppets, "Avenue Q" gets away with things that other plays probably couldn't. It is definitely not a show for kids. There is plenty of adult language (including several F-bombs), gratuitous puppet sex and several instances of characters flipping the bird. A warning says, "Not recommended for children under 13," but I'd say it's more like children under 16.

If you're older than that, though, and enjoy bizarre, bawdy humor, then you'll love "Avenue Q.," so catch it if you can!

On Tuesday, the Marshall Artists Series brought the touring production of the Broadway musical "Avenue Q" to Huntington's beautiful Keith-Albee Theater.

The show delivered laughs from the opening line -- "What do you do with a B.A. in English?" -- all the way through to the closing. Not all jokes were gut-busters, but they were steady enough to keep the near-capacity audience laughing almost constantly.

An R-rated spin on "Sesame Street," the show centers on recent college graduate Princeton, who's seeking his life's purpose, and his neighbors on the titular Avenue Q. Most of these characters are puppets. Some are monsters. One is even Gary Coleman.

They all sing about their miseries ("It Sucks to Be Me"), their dreams ("Fantasies Come True") and their lives in general. Standout songs are about the Internet's true purpose ("The Internet is for Porn"), closeted homosexual Rod's fake lover ("My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada"), the reason why it's funny to laugh at others' misfortunes ("Schadenfreude") and racism ("Everyone's a Little Bit Racist").

Unlike "Sesame Street," the actors controlling the puppets are visible. They are just as key to the show as the puppets themselves. Their performances -- both verbally and visually -- really bring the puppets to life, allowing you to transpose the emotions on their faces onto the puppets. Several actors, including the two leads, also voice multiple puppets, which is all the more impressive.

Particularly great were Princeton/Rod puppeteer Brent Michael DiRoma, who makes his touring debut with this show, though you'd never know it from his performance, and Jason Heymann, who voices and controls three puppets, including Trekkie, the hilarious Oscar the Grouch/Cookie Monster hybrid. On the human side, Lisa Helmi Johanson was perhaps the biggest laugh getter as a Japanese woman named Christmas Eve.

All the action takes place on a set that's both simple and multi-faceted. Most of the time, it's just the façade of apartment buildings, but when necessary, parts of it become bedrooms, a nightclub and even the Empire State Building.

Monitors on both sides of the stage broadcast fun, "Sesame Street"-like graphics and "lessons" at times. They also add to the hilarity on stage in the aftermath of Lucy the Slut's tragic accident.

The only problem was that lines weren't always audible to everyone, leaving some of us wondering what the heck other people were laughing at. Also, during songs, laughter sometimes drowned out subsequent verses. But that's hardly a bad problem for a show to have.

Because its main characters are puppets, "Avenue Q" gets away with things that other plays probably couldn't. It is definitely not a show for kids. There is plenty of adult language (including several F-bombs), gratuitous puppet sex and several instances of characters flipping the bird. A warning says, "Not recommended for children under 13," but I'd say it's more like children under 16.

If you're older than that, though, and enjoy bizarre, bawdy humor, then you'll love "Avenue Q.," so catch it if you can!