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Baylor Theatre’s “Urinetown” a gotta-go musical
Make that a gotta-go-to musical, but it’s hard to resist punning with such a subject.
Baylor Theatre’s production of “Urinetown,” however, is no joke. It’s the department’s best musical in years, a solid effort that reminds us what a joy the collaboration involved in theater can be: acting, music, choreography, costuming, set design and lighting.
The Greg Kottis-Mark Hollmann musical, set in a future so water-deprived that citizens must pay to pee, mocks stage musical conventions while at the same time delivering catchy songs and witty lyrics and dialogue. To director Stan Denman’s credit, his Baylor cast hits the right tone for it all with a blend of irony, sarcasm and mock innocence.
Much of the production’s success lies in its uniformly strong casting: romantic leads Bobby Strong (Adam Garst), leader of the people’s revolt against the toilet tolls, and Hope Cladwell (Amanda Capshaw), daughter of Caldwell B. Cladwell (Sam Hough), the ruthless tycoon who owns the enormously profitable Urine Good Company that controls the city’s pay facilities; Officer Lockstock (Patrick Matzig) and urchin Little Sally (Emmie Rothenbach), the musical’s narrator and commentator; the tough operator of Public Amenity No. 9 Penelope Pennywise (Louise McCartney); and a company that sings well and handles Meredith Sutton’s smart choreography.
That choreography, set design and staging sneak in humor in the small touches. Office staffers singing Cladwell’s praises form a heart with bags of money while his corporate office features true ostentacious wealth: water trickling unrestrained down a back wall.
Bobby and his fellow rebels fight from behind barricades formed from toilets, a nod to “Les Miserables” that’s echoed in choreography borrowed from that musical. The jazzy “Snuff That Girl” snaps its fingers a la “Cool” from “West Side Story.” And a tweak of a line has Hope graduating from “the most expensive Baptist university in the world.”
Denman and his cast make full use of the multi-level set, filled with steel walkways, ladders and sliding poles while Sally Askins’ costume design pays attention to detail down to the scruffiest “Urinetown” denizen.
Melissa Johnson’s musical direction blends strong solo and group singing with instrumental support from a five-person combo. The combination of body mikes and loud instrumental passages, though, sometimes caused feedback and a loss of lyrical clarity.
Its offputting title not withstanding, “Urinetown” is a funny, marvelously entertaining piece of theater that may make you think twice about that bathroom break at intermission. At least, it’s still free.
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