At Avenue Q, puppets take home the prize

From the first notes of the overture, “Avenue Q” looked a lot like its well-known inspiration, “Sesame Street.”

Talking and singing puppets graced the state, along with their human co-stars. Every so often, “educational” cartoon shorts would break up the plot.

But with songs like “The Internet is for Porn” and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” “Avenue Q” is a far cry from its children’s television roots.

Are those puppets on stage, singing about finding purpose in life? They just started having sex in the middle of “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love).”

“Avenue Q,” the 2004 Tony Award-winner for Best Show, opened its two night run Tuesday night at the auditorium to a packed house. The show — part homage to shows like “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company” and part send-up — will end its run at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are still available at the box office, and student tickets start at $19.

“Avenue Q” follows Princeton, a recent college graduate who is laid off his job, before he starts and is stuck in the only apartment he can afford in New York City on Avenue Q. There, he meets a number of fellow tenants, including Kate Monster (a kindergarten teacher), Trekkie Monster (a Cookie Monster-like internet addict), and Gary Coleman (star of “Diff’rent Strokes” and the building’s supervisor).

Walking a fine line between delightfully crude and genuinely sincere, the show has run both on and off Broadway, as well as Las Vegas and London. It has garnered multiple awards, including the Best Show (it beat out the smash hit “Wicked”) and Best Original Score Tonys, and spawned a number of domestic and international tours.

Freshman Brett Guiden, who saw the show during its Chicago run, said he enjoyed the rapport between the puppet actors and their human masters and costars.

“You can look at either one, and they’re both acting on-stage,” he said. “It’s really cool.”

Freshman Joe Maguire heard a few of “Avenue Q’s” numbers on YouTube, so when he saw it was coming to Bloomington, he decided to check out the actual show. Like Guiden, Maguire said he was as equally impressed with the music as he was with the acting and puppeteering.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” Maguire said. “I love the interaction between the puppets and the actors. It’s great.”