Reviewed
by Judy Richter
Except for its offputting title, there are many reasons to rave about "Urinetown," especially in the Foothill Music Theatre production directed by Jay Manley. The show was first staged in 1999, made its way to Broadway in 2001 and went on to win Tonys for score, book and direction. San Francisco Bay Area audiences got their first look at the show in 2003 when American Conservatory Theater inaugurated the first national tour.
With
music by Mark Hollman and lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, who also wrote the book,
"Urinetown" is a delight for lovers of musical theater because of its
skillful allusions to greats like Brecht and Weill, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Sondheim and to shows like "Les
Miserables,"
"Evita,"
"West Side Story,""Fiddler on the Roof" and others. The dances, choreographed by Tyler
Risk, honor Fosse, Robbins and favorites like the
Charleston. Hence one can constantly delight in figuring out who or what is
being evoked from one moment to the next.
"Urinetown"
also has strong social and environmental undertones as it tells the story of a
Gotham-like city that has suffered from a drought for more than 20 years.
Because of the severe shortage of water, people aren't allowed to use private
toilets. Instead they must pay for the privilege of using what are
euphemistically called public amenities, all controlled by a huge, corrupt
corporation, Urine Good Company, or UGC.Those who can't afford to pay to use
the public toilets and who do what comes naturally somewhere else are subject
to severe punishment. It doesn't take much of a stretch to see parallels to the
worsening effects of global warming and other environmental depredations as
well as some of the corporate and political scandals that have dominated recent
and current headlines.
Despite
these serious undertones, the show is great fun because so much of it is
tongue-in-cheek and because the writing is so clever. The show also is
Brechtian in that it keeps reminding the audience that it's a play. Most of
these reminders come from Officer Lockstock (David Curley), who serves as both the show's
narrator and one of the cops, along with Officer Barrel (Michael Rhone), who try to maintain order in
the city. Other reminders come from the pert Little Sally (Jessica Lynn
Carroll), the
show's truth-teller.
The
plot focuses on young Bobby Strong (Robert Brewer), who leads poor people in a
rebellion against UGC after his father, Old Man Strong (Todd Wright), is hauled off for peeing in
public and after the company's owner, Caldwell B. Cladwell (Mike R. Padilla), bribes enough legislators to
enact higher pee fees. In the meantime, though, Bobby has fallen in love with
Cladwell's innocent, good-hearted daughter, Hope (Alice Teeter).
Even
though this is a college-community production with only two Equity performers,
Brewer as Bobby and Curley as Lockstock, it's carefully polished with committed
performances by everyone in the cast. Brewer and Curley are both terrific, but
so are their colleagues, especially Teeter as Hope, Carroll as Little Sally,
Padilla as Cladwell and Linda Piccone as Ms. Pennywise, manager of Public Amenity #9, where
Bobby works.
In
addition to Manley's direction and Risk's choreography, the show benefits from Joe
Ragey's flexible
set, Julie Engelbrecht's costumes, Kurt Landisman's lighting and Catherine Snider's musical direction. It also is
a pleasure to attend a musical theater production where the sound designer (Shane
Olbourne)
realizes that singers don't have to be miked in an intimate space like the
Foothill College Playhouse. Consequently, the singing comes through clearly
without the distortion or overamplification that mars so many musicals today.
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