WELCOME to Avenue Q, the street for misfits, has-beens and a couple of monsters.

York Light Opera Company transforms York Theatre Royal’s main stage into the American avenue with a West End-worthy set and a just-as-worthy cast of humans and puppets alike.

Avenue Q is totally random, and it’s fantastic.

Princeton, a recent university graduate with a useless degree, joins the residents of Avenue Q and soon begins to look at life in a whole new way. Kate Monster and Lucy, The Slut throw a few spanners in the works as Princeton tries to find his purpose in life, meeting new neighbours Rod, Nicky, Brian, Christmas Eve, Trekkie Monster and Gary Coleman along the way.

A side-splitting script from Robert Lopez and Jess Marx combines with an animated cast of puppets and actors, with fantastic direction from Martyn Knight and assistant director Sue Hawksworth. The result is a musical which is laugh-out-loud hilarious from start to finish.

The whole thing is outrageous, with songs like Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist and The Internet Is For Porn dominating this fast-paced and quick-witted production.

Dancing boxes, a porn-obsessed parody of the Cookie Monster and a puppet so sexy she could rival Jennifer Rabbit form a whirlwind production full of sex, porn and warped happiness.

Schadenfreude shines light on the little bit of darkness inside all of us, with Gary Coleman (Lauren Charlton-Mathews) taking the reins. The dead-pan faces of the actors make these songs even more hysterical.

Never have I heard such roaring laughter from an audience, and never has it been so warranted. The joy of such an easy-going production is that the few minor blips in sound and lighting were easily overturned by the fun of the performance.

Alexa Chaplin is mesmerising as Kate Monster, her facial expressions are acute and intelligent yet totally in sync with the movements of her puppet. Richard Blackburn is equally impressive as Princeton, with his puppet and his own physical embodiment of Princeton flawlessly in tune. With puppets at the core of the production, this faultless puppetry give the musical its force.

Alicia Stabler’s deep tones are sassy and seductive as she takes on Lucy, The Slut with perfect poise. The musical accompaniment to her entrance creates a sensual atmosphere in mere moments, and Stabler’s confident American accent carries alluring intonations in almost every word. Trekkie Monster fancies the pants off of Lucy, and Stabler makes it pretty clear why.

Be warned of the adult themes and sexual references, but certainly don’t be deterred by them.

Avenue Q is a step out of the box for York Light Opera Company, but if it is a sign of things to come I’d keep my eye on them. In fact, I wouldn’t take it off of them.

Cheesy and crude and wonderfully entertaining, the cast do this West-End production real justice with knock-out performances throughout. All in all, a roaring success.

Avenue Q, York Light Opera Company, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday.