From Mamma Mia, to Cats to… Avenue Q? The latest major Mandarin musical to hit Beijing is refreshing, surprising and maybe the most fitting choice yet.

Avenue Q is an American musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore. Avenue Q is an "autobiographical and biographical" coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood. The musical is notable for the use of puppets, animated by unconcealed puppeteers, alongside human actors.

Originally conceived as a television series, the show was developed as a stage production at the 2002 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. It opened Off-Broadway in March 2003, co-produced by The New Group and the Vineyard Theatre, and transferred to Broadway in July 2003 where it won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and spawned Las Vegas and West End productions, two national tours, and a variety of international productions.

The show also employs a highly unusual plot device: a real-life celebrity inserted as a fictional character within the story. Gary Coleman, the juvenile actor who played Arnold Jackson in the 1980s American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, and later famously sued his parents and business advisers over misappropriation of his assets, is portrayed as an adult, forced to accept a job as a building superintendent in the run-down Avenue Q neighborhood due to his dire financial situation.

Date: May 10 - June 29, 2014 (Every day except Mondays and Tuesdays)

Add: 28ZhongguancunBei Dajie, Haidian District, Beijing

海淀区中关村大街28号