With a name like Urinetown, Hoof 'n' Horn's latest musical undoubtedly brings to mind a bodily function that we regard as indecent in public, one that we would rather do in private. Yet the over-the-top nature of its musical numbers and the suited businessmen with serious faces who throw around the word “pee” in conversation make the musical a comedic portrayal of serious questions which need to be seen, sung and discussed.
“Urinetown is the story of a dystopian future where there is a shortage of water, so one big company monopolizes all the bathroom facilities and makes people pay to go to the bathroom,” Camille Hayward, who plays the role of Little Sally, a narrator and go-between for the audience and the characters, said . Those who do not obey Urine Good Company’s legislation are sent to the mysterious and ominous Urinetown, from which no one who goes ever returns.
The bathroom thus cannot help but be one of the major gathering places of the masses, where the poor, filthy and oppressed people crowd in front of “Public Amenity #9,” squirming to hold in their pee. They are surrounded by a set that presents itself as being just as unpleasant: a spillage of unknown green liquid is seen on the ground and a large barrel labeled “Sewage” sits to one side. From this setting rise the putrid fumes of corporate power and corruption, of conflicting voices of the masses with higher-ups and of problems rampant in the legal system.
Urinetown tackles serious matters and hypothetical questions of the potential condition of society through both laugh-out-loud comedy and subtler, ironic commentary.
“My vision for Urinetown was that I wanted it to present the issues that it is designed to present in an informative but also an entertaining way,” James Hamilton, director of the show, said.
It may seem that it would be easy to disregard the serious undertone present in Urinetown because the musical is so entrenched in comedy. However, through its use of levity, it helps us to understand the gravity of potential disaster: it asks questions of how we would react to problems of water shortage and the loss of natural resources should these problems present themselves in the future. It creates conversation about problems that are extremely relevant to our world, no matter how ridiculous the existence of Urine Good Company and Urinetown may initially seem.
“Urinetown looks at themes such as…the big conflict between today and tomorrow, and if we should focus on what’s best for today or what’s best for the future,” Hamilton said.
Along with being a satire of various problems entrenched in our society, it also brings to the stage an unprecedented parody of musical theater itself. According to Hamilton, the musical’s message is not that it is unconventional within itself as a musical form, but that “there is no convention and that there shouldn’t be a convention.” Urinetown satirizes well-known musicals including West Side Story and Les Miserables, and even criticizes itself through the voice of Little Sally, who wonders insightfully about how a musical with happy music can simultaneously tell an unhappy story.
Within the dystopia of Urinetown, however, there is also an innocent child-like quality inherent in the musical’s incorporation and presentation of young romance, of following your heart and dreams in pursuit of a bright shining world of justice, peace and joy. The desire of the poor townspeople to seek the day when they can pee for free presents itself as a hopeful revolt against misused corporate power which ultimately meets an unexpected end.
In bringing into our present awareness the potential, both good and bad, that the future may hold, Urinetown is a story where contradictions—between hilarity and gravity, between hope and despair—are at its very core. It’s layered and thought-provoking, yet ridiculously fun.
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