I take a cautious approach to shows heralded by rave reviews as the reality is sometimes a letdown.

But Avenue Q is sheer delight from beginning to end.

It’s an amalgam of the Muppets, Sesame Street and Monty Python.

Yet it is none of those. It is fresh, original, funny, gloriously non-PC and anarchic.

You soon find yourself taking its mix of puppet and human characters to your heart, and believing in them all.

The storyline is loosely the ambitions, fears and foibles of a bunch of young people (including the puppets) on the seedier fringes of New York, trying to get by, find a job and pay the bills. It begs the question, what use is a BA degree, really?

It could be any group of young people anywhere in the world.

There’s the would-be stand-up comedian, Brian (Edward Judge), lovable, lazy and chivvied by his feisty Japanese fiancée Christmas Eve – a sparkling performance by Jacqueline Tate.

Gary (Matthew J Henry) is a one-time child TV star, now working as handyman on the apartments where they all live. Henry is sharp and sends himself up beautifully.

Then we have the Bad News Bears, (puppets) mischief-makers.

There is romance, for all gender preferences, and heartbreak; a delicious vamp in Lucy the Slut, a puppet given life by Rachel Jerram.

And there are many tender ‘aahh’ moments.

The Trekkie Monster (big hairy puppet) who salivates over Internet porn is a favourite. I did say it was non-PC.

As well, as a song about porn, another is A Little Bit Racist which comically and accurately homes in on our suppressed prejudices. Schadenfreude celebrates malicious delight in another’s misfortune. None of them your average subjects for song.

The singing, dancing cardboard boxes are a marvel.

The whole show is fast-paced, slick and totally entertaining.

It’s actually quite thought-provoking too, but you are not forced to go there.