Originally reviewed for GaySocialites.com.

Six years on, and soon to close, Avenue Q is still an extraordinary pleasure. Even though in some ways it’s an intimate, puppet-scaled show, it has such raucous comedy and raunchy energy that it easily projects to the back of Broadway’s Golden Theatre.

In case you don’t know, the musical follows recent college graduate Princeton (originally played by sexy out actor John Tartaglia, now played by the cute-in-a-different-way Robert McClure) as he looks for his “purpose” in New York’s outer boroughs. Audiences are still going wild for it; who knew this nutty show would find such a warm—and commercially successful—reception.

As an added bonus, the production’s original Japan-o-fabulous Christmas Eve, Ann Harada (recently of 9 to 5), is back in the show until it closes. Her contributions to “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” and her big solo “The More You Ruv Someone” are definitely still high points of today’s Avenue Q.

In a way, Avenue Q opened the door on Broadway for other adventurous shows like Spring Awakening and Next to Normal in a more immediate way than even Rent did. Plus the creative team—Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, music and lyrics and Jeff Whitty, book—have continued to work hard and tighten the show. A new arrangement here, an expanded or cut line there, small but important adjustments that add up to an even funnier and more moving show. You must see this fantastic musical before it’s gone!

For tickets, click here.