Winner of Three Tony Awards

They never taught you this on Sesame Street... Brash, provocative and dangerously funny, the puppet-populated Avenue Q is the one coming of age story that pulls back the curtain and finally gives us the cold hard truth - we are not, despite what our parents and Saturday morning cartoons might have told us, special snowflakes who can achieve whatever we want. So get used to it!

Written by Jeff Whitty, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q's mix of expletive spouting puppets and gloriously witty songs ('The Internet is Good for Porn', 'I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today', 'It Sucks to be Me') has garnered the show huge acclaim the world over and three Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Running Off-Broadway since 2009, it's a true New York institution, and will ensure you never look at Elmo quite the same way ever again.

WHAT IS Avenue Q ABOUT?

Taking the neighbourhood of Sesame Street as its model, this show centers on the weird and wonderful folks who live on Avenue Q, a run-down borough of New York. Into their midst comes Princeton, a recent graduate with a BA in English and not much else, who's figuring out what to do with his life.

In his quest to find a meaning to it all, he meets child star turned janitor Gary Coleman, the porn-addicted Trekkie Monster, his closeted Republican neighbour Rod and many others. Together this band of disparate friends will discover that sometimes you've just got to put striving for greatness on hold, and be content to be, y'know, normal.

DID YOU KNOW?

Avenue Q may be a Sesame Street for adults, but many of puppeteers have worked on both shows.