Urinetown, the Musical is coming to Park High School

On March 6,7,8, and 9, the Washington Park High School Drama and Music Departments will present “Urinetown, the Musical” by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis. “Urinetown, the Musical” won 3 Tony Awards for Best Book, Best Score, and Best Director. Urinetown takes a satirical look and pokes fun at capitalism, socialism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and petty small town politics. Urinetown parodies other successful Broadway musicals with its unconventional plotline and shatters audience expectations, satirizing its own significance.  The authors have followed the techniques and style of the writings of Bertolt Brechts and his “Epic Theatre”. One of Brechts’ basic techniques the authors have incorporated into the musical is to remind the audience that the play is a representation of reality and NOT reality itself. Greg Kotis came up with the idea for Urinetown while a student traveling in Europe, encountering pay-per-use toilets.

       We are told a twenty year drought has caused terrible water shortages, making private toilets unthinkable. All restroom activities are controlled by a private corporation Urine Good Company, or U.G.C. People have to pay to use the amenities. There are tough laws set up to ensure that offenders pay their dues, and if the laws are broken the guilty are sent to a supposed penal colony called “Urinetown”, where they are sent but never return. All the while Caldwell Cladwell, the evil CEO of U.G.C.,or Urine Good Company has been plotting with a corrupt senator to raise the prices of the fee in order to keep paying off the senator, as well as the crooked police force. The rebels fight back, and after much action overthrow Cladwell and his henchmen.

       There are several different song styles in the show including a gospel number, and one fashioned after the great choreographer, Bob Fosse. Famous songs include: Follow You Heart and Run Freedom Run. The show is produced by special arrangement with Music Theatre International, New York. Curtain times for the 6th, 7th, and 8th are 7:30 pm, Sunday matinee on the 9th at 2:00pm. Tickets will be $7, with reserved seating. Patrons may call 619-4439 to order tickets.