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EVERYONE’S a little bit racist sometimes, sing the incorrigibly un-politically-correct muppets of Avenue Q in an upbeat and silly show which is now starting to show its age.

The furry millennial puppets,who live in the imagined down-at-heel neighbourhood of Avenue Q in Manhattan, took the world of musical theatre by storm when the show opened off-Broadway in 2002.

It scooped three prestigious Tony Awards during its six-year run in New York but here in Eastbourne a combination of an unsympathetic space, imperfect sound and a failure to update the book leaves it falling a little flat.

The magnificent West End vocals of Sarah Harlington roll and ring out to amuse, to tug at the heartstrings and lift the spirit as she voices and controls not only the loose-moraled Lucy but also the main love interest, Kate Monster.

But unlike her furry friends Princeton (with the bright yellow face), Nicky (with the green felt face and overtones of a better-known amphibian muppet) and enormous, hairy Trikkie Monster, the Kate puppet is underwhelmingly designed. Given the advances in puppetry with theatre shows such as War Horse, the puppeteering here is fun rather than fantastical.

The story of slightly self-involved young people struggling to make ends meet while searching for a place in the world is sweet, if a little thin.

Numbers like Schadenfreude, The Internet Is For Porn, and the lighthearted lyrical assessment of ubiquitous bigotry are certainly amusing.

But this is New York humour which was shocking then, and rather old hat now.

The show also suffers for the book not having been updated or amended despite obvious opportunities for Zeitgeist references to Brexit, Donald Trump or Modern Family.

But there are good foot-tapping tunes, strong performances and one or two scenes which still have the power to cause a guffaw of outraged amusement.