Photo courtesy of the Paramount/STG

By the time we made it to the Paramount for Avenue Q's opening night last night, just about everyone we know had told us how much we were going to love it. That's a high bar our friends and family set for this show. Now we know it's because they knew it could deliver.

We found ourself wondering early on how casting goes down for a show about puppets. Do you just have to have the voice-overs down? But then, as the night went on, it became abundantly clear how and why these particular actors made the cut. Kelli Sawyer blew our minds when her two puppets—Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut—shared a scene. Sawyer seamlessly delivered a dialogue between her two puppet voices that was ever-so-slightly schizophrenic and brilliant. Same goes for Robert McClure's Princeton and Rod. Also very notable was Cole Porter David Benoit, whose voicing had us practically doubled over and crying during "The Internet is for Porn."

Why is it way more funny to see puppets curse than it is to watch regular adults drop f-bombs? Cursing puppets, it turns out, are like bodily function noises—always funny. No matter what. Especially when you least expect it. Also funny? When shows go so over the top, pulling out all the stops, to cheese things out. We're talking mid-romantic song flashy bubbles and twirling lights. We're talking building-sized puppets popping up at the right time to haunt other puppets. Explicit puppet sex. Need we say more? We don't really want to ruin anything for you, because we were scandalized...in the best way. We left this little puppet show feeling the need to shower and pray. Well, shower. In other words, our friends were right. We can't help but wonder, though, what the people who left at intermission were expecting.

June 10-22 // 7:30 p.m. // The Paramount // Tickets start at $22 (not including fees)