Certainly nobody would actually like to make a home in Urinetown, but for a two-act play, it's not a bad place to visit.
A satirical spin on the typical Broadway show, "Urinetown: The Musical" never takes itself too seriously. From the opening self-referencing expositional piece to the many songs throughout, it keeps a light tone that never strays too close to reality.
Urinetown is a "mythical place, a bad place, a place you won't see until Act Two," as Officer Lockstock (Christopher Chew) says. The setting is a large metropolitan city after the Stink Years, a time only referenced in hushed whispers. In this city, there are no public bathrooms. The only restrooms are owned by a private corporation UGC (Urine Good Company) that charges absurd fees to use their "public amenities."
The play follows Officer Lockstock as he tries his best to quell an uprising at Public Amenity #9, the main setting of the musical. The protagonist of the play is Bobby Strong (Rob Morrison), a worker at the aforementioned Amenity. The police take Strong's father away after he is not able to pay for the Amenity and relieves himself on a wall (strictly forbidden in the metropolis).
Strong begins a revolution which eventually unseats the capitalistic corporations that had been running the restrooms ever since the Stink Years. Along the way, he meets Hope Cladwell (Jennifer Ellis) and immediately falls in love. Unbeknownst to him, however, is that Hope is the daughter of Caldwell B. Cladwell, the executive of UGC. The play is mostly dominated by toilet humor and satirical jabs at play contrivances. At first, the style of the play is a bit jarring; whenever the title is mentioned, the actor saying it is sure to include "jazz hands" along with the statement. The whole subject matter, of course, is quite silly.
The actors never play their characters over the material; that is, they all play into the stereotypes while simultaneously satirizing them. One such example is Robby the Stockfish (Bobby Cronin), the UGC exec who works under Cladwell. While discussing UGC's need for revolutionary change within the metropolis, Cronin imposes a George W. Bush persona in order to further explicate the parallel between Urinetown and reality. That's about as close as the musical ever gets to the real world.
Two numbers stand out in particular: one where the metropolitan residents sing "Run, Freedom, Run!" a number that clearly harks back to the days of the Underground Railroad. The other is "Cop Song" sung by the Police ensemble, which is actually more of a rap dance than a musical number. These two songs are clearly on opposite ends of the genre spectrum, but somehow "Urinetown" efficiently blends many different musical styles into one cohesive show.
"Urinetown," as one might have guessed, is quite offbeat; the title is only a slight indication of what a patron is getting into when attending the musical. However, while the show is interesting in its approach to comically criticizing other such musicals, it is not entirely successful. "Urinetown: The Musical," while an appealing concept, ultimately relies on the musical stereotypes that it so strongly desires to satirize.
A clear example is its insistence on falling back upon the tired ploy of mistaken identity in romantic relationships. The overall 'mystery' that surrounds Hope's eventual revealing of the truth is a stale concept stolen from innumerable scripts.
One advantage of seeing "Urinetown" versus any other Boston theatrical performance is a current promotion offering student rush tickets for only $10. "Urinetown: The Musical" is a great date show, if only to show your significant other that you can understand subtle and not-so-subtle satirical references to other plays. There is also a special college-only showing on September 27 at 7:30 p.m. for singles looking to meet-and-greet with the theatre crowd.
