Urinetown: The Musical. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting shows ever written. When I first read it, I thought that it was a farce on the government. Other people see it as just a funny show. Some people see it as symbolism and that the show plot stands for some sort of historic event. Who is to say who is right. All I know that this show has changed my life. I was in it as Bobby Strong. Bobby strong is the leading man/hero type. The main plot of the story takes place after a huge drought that dried up all the water so the government has to conserve the water. How might they do that? By eliminating private bathrooms and forcing everyone to use public amenities and they have to pay to get in. My character, Bobby, works for one of the amenities and one day when his father doesn’t have enough money to pay, he decides to go right on the street. Little known to the audience, it is illegal to just go right in the street. His father is arrested and is taken to Urinetown, the mysterious place that no one knows about, but they all know it is not good. Bobby realizes that what they are doing is wrong. The people should pee for free! He leads a revolution against the Urine Good Company (UGC) and ends up kidnapping the love of his life, who just happens to be the daughter of the leader of the UGC, Cladwell. To make a long story short, Bobby ends up getting tricked into meeting with Cladwell and Cladwell decides to kill him off by taking him to Urinetown. It turns out that Urinetown doesn’t even exist. They take people to the top of the UGC building and just throw them off. The revolutionee’s are furious and they decide to take Cladwell down themselves. They throw him off the roof as well and Hope takes over. They come to realize that no matter how evil Cladwell was, his laws for dealing with water consumption was just what the town needed. The water eventually all dried up and everyone dies or moves to another just as horrible town. Sure the show doesn’t end on a happy note, but it is absolutely brilliant.
The writer of Urinetown is Greg Kotis. The story behind it, is that he was traveling in Europe and he came across a pay-per-use toilet. That was all it took. Seeing something as absurd to an American as a public toilet, leading to an award winning Broadway show. This is why I think that the show is a farce on government. Kotis obviously found it funny enough to write a show about it. He then partnered with Mark Hollman to write the lyrics. They then went to Broadway but no companies would even think of producing the show because of the subject matter. In my opinion, people wouldn’t give the show the time of day because of the title. We tried to do it at my school, and they wouldn’t let us. They didn’t even read it. They based their opinion on the title. Finally, they found an experimental theater group that would let them workshop their show. When that deal fell through, they then found themselves at the New York Fringe Festival. When a friend of theirs came and saw the show, he called The Araca Group and eventually ended up on Broadway.
This show is very personal to me. When our school decided to perform it, I was so excited. I went out and bought the CD and learned the songs. It was a couple of weeks later when I learned that our principal wouldn’t let us do the show. I was furious. I knew that he hadn’t read it. I went in to talk to him and he said that he could put the title on the announcements let alone let us put on the show. I was incredibly let down. I thought this was going to be my dream show. A year later, I heard that our Community Theater League was going to be doing it. I was ecstatic! This was the part I wanted! One of my dream roles! I couldn’t help but feel that I wouldn’t get it because this was a community theater. It wasn’t high school. However, I knew that I would be just as happy being in the chorus. The auditions came and I went up and sang my heart out. They had us do cold readings and then sent us on our way. At this time, I was doing another production at the same theater. It was a student original show. During one rehearsal, the person who was directing Urinetown pulled me out of the rehearsal and told me that I got the part. I actually shouted out loud, “Oh my God!” I had stopped the rehearsal that I was currently in and people came to make sure that everything was ok. I had gotten my first part in the community theater and I was only in 11th grade. The thing you have to understand is that this community theater, like most community theaters, was one of the most political foundations I have ever seen. When they would announce their season, you could always tell who was going to get what parts based on who was directing and what the shows were. This was one of the first times that a new person had gotten a lead part. It wasn’t even a cast of the usuals. It was a cast of mostly younger kids and people who are usually involved backstage. It was one of the shows that I am most proud of. It was a show where I could really showcase myself. I had a theater scout from Susquehanna come out and see it and he came up to me afterwards and shook my hand and told me that my performance was Broadway quality. I don’t think I would go that far, but I worked so incredibly hard on this part. It is the part that I always put on my audition sheets first when asked to list theater history. This show changed my life. I also met a lot of people who I consider my closest friends now. It was probably the best theatrical experience of my life and perhaps even the best experience of my life.
The writer of Urinetown is Greg Kotis. The story behind it, is that he was traveling in Europe and he came across a pay-per-use toilet. That was all it took. Seeing something as absurd to an American as a public toilet, leading to an award winning Broadway show. This is why I think that the show is a farce on government. Kotis obviously found it funny enough to write a show about it. He then partnered with Mark Hollman to write the lyrics. They then went to Broadway but no companies would even think of producing the show because of the subject matter. In my opinion, people wouldn’t give the show the time of day because of the title. We tried to do it at my school, and they wouldn’t let us. They didn’t even read it. They based their opinion on the title. Finally, they found an experimental theater group that would let them workshop their show. When that deal fell through, they then found themselves at the New York Fringe Festival. When a friend of theirs came and saw the show, he called The Araca Group and eventually ended up on Broadway.
This show is very personal to me. When our school decided to perform it, I was so excited. I went out and bought the CD and learned the songs. It was a couple of weeks later when I learned that our principal wouldn’t let us do the show. I was furious. I knew that he hadn’t read it. I went in to talk to him and he said that he could put the title on the announcements let alone let us put on the show. I was incredibly let down. I thought this was going to be my dream show. A year later, I heard that our Community Theater League was going to be doing it. I was ecstatic! This was the part I wanted! One of my dream roles! I couldn’t help but feel that I wouldn’t get it because this was a community theater. It wasn’t high school. However, I knew that I would be just as happy being in the chorus. The auditions came and I went up and sang my heart out. They had us do cold readings and then sent us on our way. At this time, I was doing another production at the same theater. It was a student original show. During one rehearsal, the person who was directing Urinetown pulled me out of the rehearsal and told me that I got the part. I actually shouted out loud, “Oh my God!” I had stopped the rehearsal that I was currently in and people came to make sure that everything was ok. I had gotten my first part in the community theater and I was only in 11th grade. The thing you have to understand is that this community theater, like most community theaters, was one of the most political foundations I have ever seen. When they would announce their season, you could always tell who was going to get what parts based on who was directing and what the shows were. This was one of the first times that a new person had gotten a lead part. It wasn’t even a cast of the usuals. It was a cast of mostly younger kids and people who are usually involved backstage. It was one of the shows that I am most proud of. It was a show where I could really showcase myself. I had a theater scout from Susquehanna come out and see it and he came up to me afterwards and shook my hand and told me that my performance was Broadway quality. I don’t think I would go that far, but I worked so incredibly hard on this part. It is the part that I always put on my audition sheets first when asked to list theater history. This show changed my life. I also met a lot of people who I consider my closest friends now. It was probably the best theatrical experience of my life and perhaps even the best experience of my life.
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