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Urinetown
Henry Miller Theater - September 2001
Review by John Kenrick
Don't let the title scare you off –
Urinetown is the wackiest musical satire to hit Broadway in
decades. If you love musical theater and have an off-beat sense of humor,
this show will make you laugh until you . . . er, laugh your head off. You know
you are in for something different when the conductor arrives for the overture
with a police escort.
The premise is as original as it is unpleasant – in a city suffering from
unending drought, private bathrooms are outlawed. Everyone must pay crippling
fees to use public latrines run by a monopolistic corporation. Those who cannot
pay get dragged off to "Urinetown," a mysterious place from which they never
return. Finally, one latrine manager leads the people in rebellion. The catch is
that the ingénue he loves is (gasp!) the daughter of the corporation's greedy
president.
Comedy writers Mark Holliman and Greg Kotis send up more
theatrical conventions than half a dozen editions of
Forbidden Broadway. Their book and score often sound like something a
group of musical theater masters students might whip up as a spoof of Kurt Weill,
Bertolt Brecht and Marc Blitzstein. And therein lies the catch. If you
know who those men were, you will enjoy the gags – if not, you'll probably
be clueless. John Carrafa's deceptively simple musical staging takes aim
at everything from West Side Story to Hello Dolly to
Les Miz. Boy-meets-girl romance, snarling evil, meaningful asides,
foreshadowing, exposition, special effects – all get a thorough kidding in a
relentless flow of puns, sight gags and comic mayhem. Amid all the guffaws, the
creators hold forth a surprisingly heavy message -- namely, that our
self-indulgent consumer crazed way of life is ultimately insupportable. But they
don't even take this too seriously, so I doubt anyone else will.
At times the material is
so arch that your eyebrow may fly right off your forehead. At times you may find
it all too much. (And in the wake of what happened at the World Trade Center,
you may even find a number aimed at corrupt cops to be, at the very least,
ill-timed.) In fact, the spoofing is so relentless that they were losing me
about halfway through the first act. And then the incomparable John Cullum,
as evil magnate Caldwell B. Cladwell, launched into "Don't Be the
Bunny." This masterful actor turned this wry anthem to mercilessness into a
showstopper, one of many fine moments in one of the most delicious, over-the-top
roles in his long career.
In fact, the material gets tremendous help from every member of the cast, one
of the finest comic ensembles Broadway has ever seen. Hunter Foster and
Jennifer Laura Thompson are perfect as the young lovers torn apart by
political upheaval, and the vocally dazzling Nancy
Opel chews the scenery and steals many a scene as a heartless latrine
manager with a secret. As the crooked cop narrating the proceedings, Jeff
McCarthy gives a deft comic performance that saves this unique show from
more than a few derailments. Special praise also goes to Spencer Kayden
as the chatty Little Sally, Rick Crom as the witless Tiny Tom, and
Broadway veteran Ken Jennings in several roles. The cast handles some of
the most difficult choral passages I've heard in several seasons with apparent
ease.
My one complaint – I for one am thoroughly tired of producers who think
they have to deface a theater in order to get audiences in the mood for a show.
Rent started this, the recent revival of Follies continued it, and
Urinetown has taken things to a new level of dishevelment. I know the old
Henry Miller Theater is a bit scruffy these days, but either give it coat of paint
or let it be – turning the entrance into an ugly plywood maze is an offensive
waste. And the filthy condition of the men's room did not strike me as funny –
it just struck me as filthy.
But all that is beside the point. Those of us who love musicals will (you should
pardon the expression) lap Urinetown up. Are there enough people out there to
make this a commercial success on Broadway? I doubt it, but don't do by me – the
last time I said a show couldn't attract a mainstream audience was Rent. And
this show is infinitely more enjoyable!
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