The SUNY Geneseo 2019 production of “Urinetown” (poster pictured above) is set to open Nov. 6 at 7:30 pm in Doty Recital Hall. The musical is about restrictions on the rights of townsfolk to pee. Despite the humor in parts of the plot, “Urinetown” is full of serious themes and warnings about capitalistic lifestyles (Madelyn Dewey/Arts and Entertainment editor).
Prepare to laugh until your stomach aches and leave the theater with an important message if you go to see the Geneseo Musical Theatre Department’s production of “Urinetown.”
The basic plot of the musical is that “poor people in the town have to pay money to pee,” according to musical theatre and psychology double major senior Tristan Strasser. In this way, the show mocks traditional musical conventions.
“‘Urinetown’ is a farcical take on what the classical musical is, where they take concepts that are in most musicals and turn it on its head,” Strasser said. “It’s very self-referential.”
Musical director Melanie Blood explained some of the show’s unique conventions, in addition to its satirical nature.
“For example, actors play multiple characters in it. Actors directly address the audience. We have all kinds of non-real things happening, like ghosts come back in the production,” Blood said. “There are comic repetitions of physical and verbal things that happen throughout that are really only meant to be funny.”
Strasser stressed the unique convention of speaking directly to the audience, which is not normally seen in traditional musicals.
“I’m the narrator and an officer, but I often talk about what the audience will want to hear and whether the writing makes it an easier musical and what the audience should be feeling, which makes it very funny,” Strasser said.
“Urinetown” is also a page to stage production. This means the cast and crew are all musical theatre majors and the production uses minimal sets, sound, lights and costumes, according to Blood.
Mathematics and musical theatre double major Sandra Kralik highlighted how the page to stage format features the talent.
“Our acting and our voices really carry the show which is cool because we rely on that instead of relying on the production value, which we don’t get to do often,” Kralik said.
Throughout directing the show, Blood has been focused on the actors and the sustainable message of the show.
“The focus for me has been on the actors’ process. At heart it’s a parable about sustainability,” Blood said. “So, we’re really focusing on that too and the actors’ points of view on the sustainability story at the heart of it.”
Kralik emphasized the importance of the message regarding caring for our planet.
“It does talk, ultimately, about sustainability and where we are in the planet and that we need to be taking care of our planet in order to make sure that we have it for the future generations,” Kralik said. “I think having the musical theatre department also do a show that has to do with sustainability—even though it is a sadistic, ironic type of show—it still gets that message across in the end.”
Blood explained the “two models” presented in the show about how people should be considering the issues in the show of water shortages and population control. It is about “thinking about more effective solutions.”
“One is to create really restrictive policies—in this case it’s also self-interested by our villains in the story. Or we can kind of happily ignore it,” Blood said. “To actually think about and do something for the greatest benefit and makes what would be hard choices is the suggested middle ground. Instead we get some comedy going into two opposite extremes in the production.”
In addition to its important message, the cast enjoys the show and spends a lot of time laughing, according to Kralik.
“We are all laughing all the time while rehearsing, and it’s going to be so difficult not to do it on stage because we’re all having such a good time,” Kralik said.
Overall, Strasser expressed that the cast has worked incredibly hard to make the show impressive.
“I think anyone will enjoy this show. It’s very funny throughout the entire book. The book is very well written, and I think the music matches it perfectly,” Strasser said. “I think the cast is doing a really great job at playing into the comedy.”
“Urinetown” will be performed from Wednesday Nov. 6 to Saturday Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. in Doty Recital Hall.