Photo Credit: Mark Frohna
As the world reeled under the horror of 9/11, a subversive and oddly prescient musical made its Broadway debut. Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis’ Urinetown, which satirizes both modern politics and the musical genre itself, has only grown more relevant over the past 17 years as droughts worsen and corporate malfeasance abounds.
Skylight Music Theatre’s production under Ray Jivoff’s direction sets the piece 20 years in the future and asks the question: What will the world look like two decades down the line if environmental crises continue and corporations conspire with government to control such basic utilities as restrooms? Featuring a pair of meta-narrators who let the audience in on the joke of the show’s musical-defying-musical structure, the show is as entertainingly tongue-in-cheek in presentation as it is serious in subject matter.
For those who fear that Urinetown’s socio-political undertones may make for a heavy-handed, didactic piece of theater, Jivoff assures, “What really works about the show is that there is a political and social commentary, but it’s so entertaining and funny and over the top.” Full of “hysterical production numbers one after another of varying styles,” he says, “it’s able to walk that fine line between making commentary and being entertainment.” He continues, “You’re left with questions and I think a message of needing to find a compromise. No one answer is the answer. Somewhere in the middle is usually the answer.”
The show’s insight goes beyond satirical treatment of modern social mores to interrogate the nature of musical storytelling in our time. Jivoff asserts, “Because it’s the 21st century, the show is commenting on how we can’t have a boy-meets-girl love story that necessarily ends happily anymore. We’re too self-aware and perhaps the culture has become too jaded for that kind of happy ending, but even its unhappy ending is comically presented.”
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Creating a Satirical Dystopia
An impressive roster of production and performance artists facilitate the look of Skylight’s Urinetown. Eschewing the Depression-esque setting the musical usually receives, Skylight’s scenic designer, Brandon Kirkham, has utilized metal and plastic storage containers, metal catwalks and sliding grates to create a world that looks more like a modern industrial park than a Works Progress Administration camp.
Similarly, Karin Kopischke’s costumes highlight a distinctly modern disparity between rich and poor and reflect the culture’s response to a prolonged drought. While the corporate characters wear well-tailored suits, the impoverished revolutionaries are outfitted in dust-encrusted assemblage. Think steampunk patchwork, well-worn work boots and lots of layers.
Urinetown’s music and choreography provide its greatest tie to self-conscious satire, and in Skylight’s production, all the stops have been pulled out. Under David Bonofiglio’s musical direction and Ryan Cappleman’s choreographic direction, the crack performance ensemble explores a million-and-one references to other musicals presented in rapid-fire succession. While audiences familiar with the show can enjoy the score’s overt nods to classics like Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables and Three Penny Opera, we can also look forward to new insertions by Cappleman himself. For instance, Jivoff shares that, in staging the closing number of act one, “Look At The Sky,” Cappleman immediately saw potential to tie in imagery from Wicked’s hit number “Defying Gravity.” Undoubtedly there will be extravagant entertainment for all—as well as many Easter eggs for musical theater buffs.
Visually stunning and satirically exemplary, Skylight’s Urinetown reflects the company’s mission to present a diverse range of entertainment each season. As Jivoff points out, “In a season where we’ve done an adaptation of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta; a family show, Annie; a wacky, silly cartoon show, Zombies from the Beyond; and then a grand opera reduced and reimagined [The Tales of Hoffmann], Urinetown seemed to fit that spectrum.”
Urinetown runs May 18-June 10 in the Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
