Out and About with West Ashley Patch

I'm not normally a fan of show tunes or the musicals from which they originate, though there have been a few exceptions. I took my wife to Wicked in Charlotte in 2010 and found the show enjoyable, despite having one of the songs stuck in my head for days afterward. A few years before that she took me to Spamalot, and being a huge Monty Python fan, I had a great time even though I still can't remeber all the words to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

But for the most part musical theater, and by extension movie musicals, are not things I look forward to with few exceptions, the South Park movie and The Producers among them.

But when the wife got free tickets to the opening of Avenue Q at the Dock Street Theater on Thursday I was actually excited. I mean who doesn't love subversive puppets? I was somewhat familiar with the show already, and we found a few clips from other performances of it on YouTube, which is something I recommend for anyone unfamiliar with Avenue Q but thinking about attending.

It is a musical for adults as the poster and program both note. Don't let the puppets fool you, if you take your 4-year-old fan of Elmo and Cookie Monster, you'll have some uncomfortable explaining to do by the end of the first number.

But for a mature audience that isn't uptight about race, sex, homosexuality, internet porn and a bevy of other issues, Avenue Q offers a great experience. We were laughing from beginning to end.

The actors and crew at Charleston Stage do a superb job with the material, and after a few minutes you really don't even notice that the actors working the puppets, who aren't hidden behind anything while on stage, are there at all.

The show runs through Feb. 26 at the Dock Street Theater at 135 Church St. Downtown.