Town Hall’s production of the satiric musical is a big jolt of fun
Great things often come in small packages, and when it comes to the quality of the productions Littleton Town Hall puts on in its tight space, Urinetown is the latest glowing example.
The 2001 musical is about a drought-stricken town where the ability to relieve oneself is controlled by an evil corporation. The story follows a familiar good-vs-evil and hero/damsel track but with delightful spins on such tropes at every turn. Borrowing from melodrama, vaudeville, Gilbert & Sullivan, borscht-belt comedy and every Broadway musical ever, Urinetown is a clever, dorky and hilarious romp. The trio of director Robert Michael Sanders, music director Dan Graeber and choreographer Ronni Stark has engineered a stunner of a show that’s rock-solid top to bottom.
Driving the music is a great little onstage band led by Graeber on keys along with drums (Brian Jaffe/Sean Case), a standup bass (Ron Bland) and reeds (Joel Paszkowski). The quartet runs through as many genres as it does numbers throughout the show.
Stark’s choreography is a marvel in itself as the very large cast on the small stage rollicks many a high-energy piece with precision. With 20 people on stage (24 if you count the band), I was half expecting some crashes during the busy dance numbers, but it all went off with nary a hitch.
Urinetown has an emcee of sorts in the character of a cop called Lockstock. Damon Guerrasio, one of Colorado’s most versatile actors, fills this role beautifully with many winks and nods at the audience. He also has an ongoing bit with Little Sally, a street urchin played as a funny, filthy naïf by Lexi Lubotsky. Explaining musical tropes and other devices used within the show itself adds another layer of meta gags atop everything else going on.
Lockstock has a sidekick named, of course, Barrel (Mark Shonsey in a strong comedic turn). Despite their ongoing banter, they’re the enforcers for the evil CEO of — wait for it — Urine Good Company Caldwell Cladwell (Jim Hitzke). Along with his yes-man McQueen (Ryan Buehler) and sleazy Senator Fipp (Elliot Clough), Cladwell’s clique represents the unrepentant quintessence of corruption in town as they squeeze the peasants for every penny.
Not that kind of musical
This is not, as Lockstock tells us, a happy-ending kind of musical. Funny though it is, Urinetown is an on-the-nose indictment of capitalism, politics, corporate greed, social decline and bureaucracy — to name a few. The characters may be caricatures, but much of what they suffer or impose is rooted in truth. And that, of course, is what makes it so funny.
At the center of the conflict is Bobby Strong (a loveably spot-on Jake Bell) — a dashing but dirty hero who works at the yukkiest urinal in town under Miss Pennywise (Liz Brooks). At the top of the show we get a good look at what life is like as the townsfolk are ignominiously queued up for their morning pee. Those without enough pennies to get in get no mercy from brassy Pennywise, and there are strict laws about peeing in the bushes.
But when Bobby’s father, Old Man Strong (Rich Cadwallader) comes up short and takes a leak on the street, he’s hustled off by the cops to “Urinetown.” No one knows what it is, exactly, but once you’re sent there, you’re not seen again. This sets off the crowd, and Bobby winds up leading a movement to fight the power for a future where everyone can pee for free.
The heroine
Enter into the mix Hope Cladwell, home with a degree from the world’s most expensive college to join dear old dad in the family business. But first she runs into Bobby and the two fall instantly in love. Anne Terze-Schwarz is simply tremendous in this role, with a powerful singing voice and just the right mix of innocence and toughness. Torn between her love for Bobby and his dream of a better world and allegiance to her father, Hope’s journey fuels much of the action throughout the show — even after Bobby has been sent to Urinetown.
Even with such a large cast, Sanders manages to tease memorable performances out of everyone. I loved Corey Exline as Bobby’s mother, and Brooks is another standout as Pennywise, the irascible functionary with a bombshell secret revealed in Act Two. Hayes Burton is hilarious as Hot Blades Harry — one of the angry mob who’s always wanting to string up the baddies as he sees them. And Sam Barrosso is an impactful Becky Two Shoes, with a brassy voice that cuts through the crowd at key moments.
Don’t let the icky title turn you off. The exposition at the top of the show has quite a few urinary references, but once we’re into the story the issue could be almost anything. By choosing the most basic of needs as the conflict, the book by Greg Kotis stands in for unaffordable health care, high rents, wealth disparity — you name it. The musical, presented here in a truly stellar production, may not change the world. But it will make you think, and laugh, for a couple of hours.
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