In a world overcome by environmental collapse, corporate greed and unchecked bureaucracy, will anyone stand up to the powers-that-be and fight for the privilege to pee?
That’s the question at the center of Urinetown, the satirical musical that will storm the stage at the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts from Feb. 19-22.
With a book by Greg Kotis, music by Mark Hollman and lyrics by Hollman and Kotis, Urinetown tells the story of a city in the grips of a prohibition on private potties caused by a decades-long drought. With a corporate overlord greedily gaining from the people’s need to go, one man can’t hold it any longer and plans a coup to free the facilities for all. Plus, there’s a love story.
The musical premiered off-Broadway in spring 2001 and moved to Broadway that fall. It earned three Tony Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards and a Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical.
Now the satire is coming to town with a steampunk vibe under the direction of Sean Patrick Gibbons, visiting assistant professor of theatre.
The cast features Antonio Torres (Bobby Strong), Anthony Kehs (Officer Lockstock), Cally Williams (Hope Cladwell), Alby Lopuhovsky (Cladwell Cladwell), Sarah Pugliese (Penelope Pennywise), Gabby Greffen (Little Sally), Hope Jacobus (Mr. McQueen), Jacob Cintronelle (Officer Barrel), Caleb Flannery (Senator Fipp), Elias Brix (Dr. Billeaux/Tiny Tom), Abby Olander (Cladwell’s Secretary), Elena Disciullo (Mrs. Millenium), John Quick (Joseph “Old Man” Strong), Geanna Kirchner (Josephine “Old Ma” Strong), Rocco Pugliese (Hot Blades Harry), Charley Cain (Robby the Stockfish), Gabbi Howe (Billy Boy Bill), Sammie Gashi (Little Becky Two Shoes), Isa Mendez (Soupy Sue), Carolynn Jewell (Ensemble), Caitlin Barton (Ensemble) and Ella Villani (Ensemble).
The associate director is Maddie Meier, the production stage manager is Noah Dixon and the assistant stage managers are Melissa Reyes and Lacey Rinker.
Gibbons considers Urinetown a mega-musical, with every song feeling important and epic. “There are production numbers that last for 10 minutes,” says Gibbons. “It is such a joy as a director and as an artist to think, ‘Okay, how do we wrap our heads around huge production number after huge production number, while also honoring the satirical comedy and its musical theater structure?’ It’s been a blast.”
Just because there’s no fluff doesn’t mean there are no laughs. “It’s funny and dark and twisted,” says Gibbons. Urinetown gives a nod to the realism of Berthold Brecht and explores the dangers of unchecked capitalism while at the same time featuring the Urine Good Company and poking fun at the musical theatre genre. The cast brings the funny by making sure the characters take the dystopian bathroom dilemma seriously.
For Gibbons, helping the cast find balance between the show’s deep truths and broad humor is a vital part of pre-professional theatre training Wilkes offers. “It’s this comical, dystopian society, but it’s real for the characters. That’s where satire lives. When the students graduate and they get handed a script that lives in satire, they will have had the experience of their training program to know how to tackle that style of acting” he says.
As far as the style of the production itself, Gibbons didn’t want Wilkes University Theatre’s Urinetown to look like every other company’s version. While he was doing some research and planning, costume designer Bonnie Hall suggested a steampunk aesthetic, and the director felt a Urinetown built on gears, metal and pipes made perfect sense.
“We reimagined Urinetown as a society running on the fumes of a long-dead industrial age, with characters desperately clinging to the gears and the machinery of a broken world,” says Gibbons.
Though Urinetown takes a critical look at problems with the environment, capitalism, politics and power that may mirror current events, Gibbons hopes audience members will come out to find some light — and plenty of laughs — in the darkness.
“Art in itself is inherently political because it’s commenting on something in our society, but it doesn’t always have to be heavy,” says Gibbons. “Come experience a sense of joy and community and hope, and maybe leave thinking about how we’re all parts of the cog that can make our world better.”
Urinetown
Performed by Wilkes University Theatre at the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, Feb. 19 | 8 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 20 | 8 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 21 | 2 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 21 | 8 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 22 | 2 p.m.
Tickets are available online at wilkes.edu/theatre. Cost is $20 for general admission, $15 for non-Wilkes students/senior citizens and free for Wilkes students, faculty and staff. The box office will open one hour before curtain for purchases in person.