YOUNGSTOWN — Millennial Theatre Company’s production of “Avenue Q” is brought to you by the letters A OK.

Or maybe it should be the letters OMG.

The Robert Lopez / Jeff Marx / Jeff Whitty musical gets a lot of mileage from cuddly puppets saying and doing some very adult things. I’ve seen it a couple of times before, but it’s been a few years, and I’d forgotten just how far it pushes some boundaries.

MTC’s production, which opened Friday at Hopewell Theatre, certainly doesn’t shy away from the bawdy possibilities of the story. There’s a puppet sex scene that rivals the one involving marionettes in Trey Parker’s and Matt Stone’s “Team America: World Police.”

Judging by the laughter and the applause breaks that followed nearly every musical number, the capacity crowd for opening night loved every minute of it, and MTC has added two performances to the originally planned six-show run to meet ticket demand.

Any similarities between “Avenue Q” and “Sesame Street” are purely intentional. Some characters closely parallel those from the beloved television series. Roommates Rod (Ben Doss) and Nicky (George Maillis) bear some similarities to Bert and Ernie, and at least in Rod’s case, also generate speculation about their sexuality.

Trekkie Monster (Tyler Stouffer) is a stand-in for Cookie Monster, albeit one with a different kind of craving, hilariously described in the musical number “The Internet Is for Porn.”

But “Avenue Q” isn’t a simple parody. Instead it takes a similar approach of delivering lessons … just to a different demographic.

Princeton (Ryan Lamb) is searching for his purpose in life. Katie Monster (Sarahh Kinser) seeks true love. And just as they do on that other street, the puppets interact with human characters, including aspiring comedian Brian (Ryan Stewart), therapist Christmas Eve (Bernadette Lim) and a landlord (Grayson McCrory) whose identity is worth keeping secret for those who haven’t seen the musical before.

The puppets, designed by Lynn Ohle and her Out of Hand Puppets, perfectly suit the production and the amateur puppeteers operating them convincingly turn them into expressive characters.

With Joe Asente’s direction, the entire cast displays impeccable comedic timing, but no one gets more laughs than Ty Hanes and Gene Metro as the Bad Idea Bears, who had the audience giggling from the preshow announcements.

Asente adds a couple of funny moments to an already-laugh-filled script with some contemporary references, at least one Youngstown mention and a plug for MTC’s summer production of “The Spongebob Musical.”

Among the musical highlights were the full-cast numbers “It Sucks to Be Me” and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” the McCrory-led “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want When Making Love,” Brianna Rae Quinn’s “Special” and Kinser’s beautiful rendition of “There’s a Fine, Fine Line.”

There are some times when the actors had trouble maintaining their character voices when performing the musical numbers, but it’s not a fatal flaw. In some ways, it’s preferred. Some of the songs are strong enough that it was better to hear them sung in a natural voice than at the higher pitch used for the dialogue.

Keep the kids at home but take a trip to “Avenue Q.”

If you go …

WHAT: Millennial Theatre Company — “Avenue Q”

WHEN: 2 p.m. today (sold out); 7:30 p.m. Friday; and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Jan. 29

WHERE: Hopewell Theatre, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $20 and are available online at millennialtheatre.org.