“Hands down it’s Kate Monster,” says Avenue Q’s book writer Jeff Whitty when asked to name his favourite character in the play. “She’s the female romantic lead and the moral centre. But she’s also really cool. Kate was that fun girl in college that you did ecstasy with and laughed all night.”

Whitty has become accustomed to speaking of Avenue Q’s colourful cast of puppets as if they actually existed. It’s a symptom of a number of things, not the least of which is his close involvement with the project, which he unabashedly calls his child. (Whitty developed the play for its 2003 off-Broadway debut with co-creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx.) Treating Avenue Q’s puppets like people is also, of course, part of the play-franchise’s marketing strategy. As the musical has moved to Broadway, London’s West End, Stockholm, Helsinki, Manila and now Toronto, flacks have proffered its puppets — from bubbly Kate to slutty Lucy to compulsive masturbator Trekkie — to the press as interview subjects.

This is also in the tradition, of course, of the Muppet master — Jim Henson — without whom the musical would not exist. Avenue Q is a simultaneous homage to and send-up of what Henson did; the creator and designer of its puppets is Rick Lyon, who himself moved from early work in Sesame Street to Comedy Central’s cult hit Crank Yankers. Whitty cautions, however, not to put too much stock in Avenue Q as an irreverent take on Henson.

“It would be a crime if his legacy were that of just being some sort of kiddie show man,” says Whitty. “He was quite bohemian and hip and had a wonderful sense of humour. Madeline Kahn was on Sesame Street; Debbie Harry was on The Muppet Show. I think in a way we are very much in keeping with this tradition.

“And if you come for the juxtaposition of the innocence of puppets with the bawdy material, that will get you through about 10 minutes of hilarity, and then you’re sort of up a creek,” Whitty adds. “There are definitely parts that are dirty. There’s an undeniable pleasure in swearing puppets; I’ll admit it. But we’re also using the puppets in service of our fable: a sort of simplified and then exploded representation of the journeys people go through in life, especially when they’re in their twenties, trying to make that transition from childhood to adulthood.”

One notices the humanity of the concept immediately, in fact, through the puppeteers, who do their work visibly, moving around onstage with the puppets they’re manipulating. It’s a wise visual statement on puppets as inherently adult creations — and as effective intermediaries for adult concerns.

“Avenue Q opened off-Broadway the night the US began bombing Iraq,” notes Whitty. “There was all that jingoistic, patriotic stuff, so when we made a George Bush joke at the very end there was this total sense of danger. Then the Republican Convention came to New York, and a couple delegates came to see the show, were followed by reporters, and said they didn’t appreciate the joke. We’ve gone through this entire cycle, where at this point we’re just saying what everybody thinks. Actually, the joke isn’t as good as it used to be.”

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