Audience members were educated through songs about topics ranging from racism and porn to life purpose and schadenfreude Tuesday night in Eisenhower Auditorium.

The Broadway musical Avenue Q took the stage at Eisenhower for the first time to an audience of 1,550. The production will show again at 7:30 tonight.

"It exceeded my expectations," Brian Maynard (sophomore-interdisciplinary studio) said. "And I expected hilarity."

Maynard said this was the first time he and his friends had seen the show live. When they found out it was coming to campus they needed to see it, he said.

"It kind of has a reputation for being really funny," Ford DeCastro (sophomore-bioengineering) said. "It preceded itself."

He had listened to several Avenue Q songs before, including "The Internet is for Porn." Those songs made him want to see the show. He added that while watching the show, it's easy to forget that many of the characters are puppets.

The musical tells the story of recent college graduate Princeton as he moves into a cheap apartment on Avenue Q in a nameless borough outside of New York City. Princeton finds things become difficult when he realizes he has not yet found his life purpose.

The performance opened with a song about how much life sucks as Princeton meets his new neighbors. The cast eventually agrees that it sucks most to be the Avenue Q superintendent, who happens to be Gary Coleman, who is played by one of three live actors in the show.

As Princeton begins interacting with his neighbors, the songs elicited more laughs from the audience.

"Everyone's a little bit racist sometimes," Princeton's love interest, Kate Monster sings at one point. "Maybe it's a fact we all should face."

It was this straightforwardness that Lindsey Goodlow enjoyed most about the show.

"I like the fact that it's so blunt," Goodlow (sophomore-kinesiology) said. "They say what everyone might be thinking."

Another memorable moment came in the show when Gary Coleman explains to one of his residents, Nicky, the concept of schadenfreude.

"Happiness at the misfortune of others? That is German!" Nicky exclaims.

The show even spoke directly to college students. At one point the characters sing about how they wish they could go back to college.

DeCastro ( said that the themes and humor of the show are something that should resonate with college students.

"Anybody our age can get this," he said.

Goodlow attended the performance to satisfy a requirement in her theatre history class, but was very happy she got to see it in the end.

"I would come back and see it a million times," she said.