AVENUE Q is Sesame Street's risqué second cousin.

The characters may look similar, aside from the humans parading them, the songs may be just as joyful, but the lyrics and acerbity make it every inch the more appealing, rebellious family member.

Cast aside the incongruity of a furry monster spewing profanities and political incorrectness, Avenue Q ostensibly a district of New York is, at its heart, a love story.

A man and a woman chasing each other's hearts, a man lusting after a man, and a monster with a penchant for online pornography.

Apparently, as Trekkie Monster boldly claims, the only purpose that the World Wide Web serves is to furnish the surfer's mind with depraved carnality.

The audience, which had come to witness debauchery and caustic tongue lashings, were jolted from their seats in fits of laughter throughout the performance.

As the two star-struck lovers Kate and Princeton reminded us of innocent childhood television characters, humans Gary and Christmas Eve provided a witty counterweight.

Avenue Q is an ode to our collective childhood the halcyon days when we lived carefree and did not have to suffer the scourge of bills.

But the central theme is purpose. Princeton is incessantly seeking a purpose in life.

It is a subject we don't consider much when we're young. But that is the secret of Avenue Q's runaway success.

It disarms you with its furriness and propels you with its humour, until the crescendo thrusts itself upon you and you're enveloped by the pressures of life that even muppets cannot escape.

It has a serious message, but it takes you on a rapturous journey to get there.

AZ.

Merton fails to unlock the door

Paul Merton's Out of My Head at The Lowry Theatre, Salford

IT was clear from the promotional poster Paul Merton standing in the sea, his head encased in a birdcage with a tiny horse atop it that his new show was not going to be the usual run-of-the-mill stand-up.

Surrealism was the key, it is just that Merton failed to unlock the door.

The start triggered a few laughs anecdotes and witty observation were the order of the day.

But then it just went, well, a little too weird as he was joined by three cohorts, including Merton's wife Suki Webster, Whose Line Is It Anyway pianist Richard Vranch and Lee Simpson.

A series of mostly unfunny sketches then ensued, the only humour coming when three of the cast answer questions from the fourth with each of them saying one word of the sentence in turn.

The best part of the show was Merton's time recalling his stay in a psychiatric hospital and his school days at a strict Catholic school.

Flying nuns and bunny rabbits were the order of the evening.

Webster, Vranch and Simpson illustrate the workings of Merton's mind through a series of bizarre sketches.

The whole show just seemed too inconsistent and tried too hard to be more than surreal.

Merton is usually hysterical on Have I Got News For You?.

It is just a shame he couldn't bring that to the stage.

SY