MARCH 11, 2010 ISSUE
Lees-McRae Presents Urinetown March 19 to 23
“Don’t let the title fool you—it’s not a dirty play,” assured Dr. Michael Hannah, director of Lees-McRae College’s upcoming production of Urinetown.
The Division of Performing Arts will present the musical Friday through Wednesday, March 19 to 23, at Hayes Auditorium on the campus in Banner Elk. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. except for Sunday, which features a 2:00 p.m. matinee. Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students and children.
Urinetown opened on Broadway in 2001 and garnered 2002 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Musical Score. The setting is a Gotham-like city, where a terrible water shortage caused by a 20-year drought leads to a government-enforced ban on private toilets.
The citizens are forced to use public amenities regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity’s most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he’s had enough, and he plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom.
“The play is a satire of big business, ecological disaster, government corruption and impractical idealism,” Hannah said. “Urinetown refers to the mystical place of punishment for those who defy the government and its proxy megacorporation, both of which are really trying to preserve what little water is left on the planet by outlawing private toilets and severely rationing the water supply.
“Everything in Urinetown is over the top—greed, fear, suffering, corruption, revenge and acting,” he added.
Urinetown has been praised for “reinvigorating the notion of what a musical could be,” while some suggest it is actually a satire of the musical form itself.
“In writing Urinetown, the production team made it very clear that they love the musical theatre genre and wanted to pay tribute to it,” Hannah said. “Urinetown has been described as a very ‘self-aware’ musical. You’re told from the opening lines of Officer Lockstock that you’re in a theatre watching a musical.
“The songs are patterned after some of the most beloved shows, but they aren’t really copies,” Hannah continued. “It’s like one big inside joke for those of us who love musical theatre. Can something be both a parody and a tribute? I think Urinetown shows that it can.”
For more information, call the Lees-McRae Performing Arts box office at 828-898-8709.
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