Providence College's last show of their season is the Broadway
show "Urinetown" which won three Tony Awards in 2002. "Urinetown" is set in
the future where a 20 year drought of epic proportions has forced corrupt
city officials to come up with a unique way to conserve water: people may
only use public restrooms and they must pay for the privilege. Urinetown
imagines what would happen if "It's a Privilege to Pee," as one of the songs
explains. The Urine Good Company monitors the use of public toilets and the
poor are forced to pay drastic amounts to use them. Fed-up citizens take to
the streets, but those caught breaking the law are carted off to the
mysterious "Urinetown" never to be seen again. A musical filled with comedy,
murder, and rebellion that follows one rule: expect the unexpected. This
satirical musical pokes fun at and sends up "The Threepenny Opera", "Annie",
"Fiddler on the Roof", "West Side Story" and Gershwin romances
simultaneously. It is a satirical musical that pokes fun at capitalism,
social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement and
petty-small town politics. Director Mary Farrell infuses this show with
high energy and casts all the roles perfectly. Choreographed by Colleen
Burns, she creates all the clever dance steps which spoof these shows
beautifully including the bottle dance from "Fiddler" while music director
Lila Kane supplies the musical direction and lovely harmonization's of the
cast to pull off this unique and funny show. This multitalented 19 member
college cast blows the roof off the theatre with their powerful
performances, earning them a well deserved standing ovation at curtain call.
Mary makes all her performers portray these bigger than life roles in a
cartoon-like manner which keeps the audience enthralled with the farcical
elements of the show. Lila's expertise shines through with the topnotch
vocals of the cast and she also plays the piano with her four member
orchestra. Colleen, a junior who I reviewed earlier in the season in
"Charley's Aunt" not only choreographs the show but sings and dances in it,
too. The show's narrator, Officer Lockstock, greets us and informs us
through the lyrics of his first song which is"Urinetown","Better hope your
pennies add up to the fee, we can't have you peeing for free''. He informs
everyone that Urinetown is a mythical place filled with symbolism and stuff
like that but won't be seen until the second act. The opening number is
reminiscent of "Three Penny Opera". Lockstock's lines are clever, witty and
humorous and are delivered perfectly by one of the biggest scene stealers,
Dan Travers. He has proven his acting prowess in "Funny Girl" but he gets to
show off his strong singing and dancing talents as this character. Dan leads
off with the opening title song and leads his fellow cop and zombies in a
song and dance number called "Cop Song" which reminds you of "Trouble" from
"The Music Man". (The zombies act out how they were each caught
peeing illegally and sentenced to Urinetown.) His fellow officer, Barrel is
humorously played by Patrick Knight as a bumbling aide to the chief cop. He
uses a higher pitch to his speaking voice and has a wonderful tenor singing
voice. Another scene stealer is Sarah Bedard as Little Sally who is the
voice of reason in this madcap show and first appears in roller skates,
carrying a stuffed shaggy dog with her through most of the show.. She asks
all these hard questions of Lockstock who is unable to answer them including
metaphysical and hydraulics questions, she also mocks the horrible name for
the show and says it isn't a happy show.. Sarah gets to show off her strong
singing voice in the group numbers and in "Tell Her I Love Her" about Bobby
leaving a Hope, a farewell message before he was sent to Urinetown forever.
The young lovers in the show are Bobby Strong, a poor boy and Hope Cladwell,
a rich girl played Ryan Desaulniers and Suzanne Keyes who I first reviewed
in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" two years ago. They meet and fall
in love when his father is arrested and brought to Urinetown for peeing
without payment. One of the first hilarious bit in a show filled with them
when Daniel Roe as Old Man Strong turns his back to the audience and
supposedly whips it out peeing into the orchestra pit which is covered with
netting so cast members can climb up and down from the pit to enter from the
sewer system of the town.) Suzanne is dressed in red gingham dress with ruby
slippers and acts like a cross between Shirley Temple and Judy Garland, she
continually says she is new in town and doesn't understand what her evil
father is doing. When this happens, Bobby decides to stage an uprising, not
realizing that Hope's father is the culprit. They get to show off their
powerful tenor and soprano voices in "Follow Your Heart" where they listen
to each others heart which is a hoot and Hope tells him to follow what it
tells him to do. Ryan also sings "Look At the Sky" which is like "One Day
More" from "Les Miserables" (Colleen and the other singers/dancers wave the
flags in this number) Bobby realizes he must kidnap Hope to win their
demands from Cladwell and they run up the stairs of the theatre in slow
motion to end Act 1. and the revival song, "Run Freedom Run" which is like
"Sit Down Your Rockin' the Boat" from "Guys and Dolls" while Suzanne sings
the powerful ballad "I See a River" while the chorus waves two scarves
behind her to simulate the river and dance during it. They play their parts
beautifully.
The villain of the show is Caldwell B. Cladwell who controls the public
amenities corporation, treating his lowly cohorts like dirt. Alexander C.
MacIntyre who played the lead in "Charley's Aunt" earlier this season, is a
hoot as this Snidley Whiplash type cad who gets to sing and strut his stuff
in the "Mr. Cladwell" number with his minions ( a kick-line and Charleston
are done in this song as Hope sings and dances on his desk) as well as in
"Don't Be a Bunny" which is like "Little Girls" from "Annie" with Alexander
singing to his cohorts who wear one glove pretending to be rabbits as he
kills four puppet bunnies on his desk. Conor Leary does a good job as Mr.
McQueen, Cladwell's right hand man who gets to do his dirty work while the
talented Matt Hassan plays Senator Fipp, a shifty public official who gets
to show off his singing voice in the quintet number, "Why Did I Listen to
that Man?'' with Lockstock, Barrel, Hope and Samantha Brilhante who plays
the Brechtian like character Penelope Pennywise. She runs the public toilet
# 9 with an iron fist. Pretty brunette, Samantha plays the bitchy broad with
the right amount of sassiness and gets to sing "It's a Privilege to Pee"
with her poor customers while threatening to turn them into the cops and in
"I'm Sorry" with Cladwell after she spills a secret from their past and it
plays out like a scene from "Sweeney Todd". Samantha sounds like Tallulah
Bankhead when she lowers her voice during the show, while threatening the
people and she confesses to what she did during the stink years and believe
her it wasn't pretty. (She gave another powerful performance last year as
Mrs. Brice in "Funny Girl" and earlier this season as Donna Lucia in
"Charley's Aunt") Other scene stealers include Daniel Roe with a mohawk-hair
style as Hot Blades Harry and Colleen Burns as Little Becky Two-Shoes (who
is padded to appear pregnant.) They lead the topnotch chorus in "Snuff That
Girl" which sounds like "Cool" from "West Side Story" and in "We're Not
Sorry" which is an energetic Charleston. Statuesque Kaitlin
Fitzsimons shines as Bobby's mother with all her crazy shenanigans as the
grieving widow and frail mother who climbs all over the two story set with
ease also keeping Hope tied to the chair during the kidnapping sequence The
multitude of gorgeous colorful costumes are by David Costa-Cabral
(especially funny are the matching suits of Cladwell, McQueen and Fipp
in mustard color, royal blue and purple with matching shoes and
large diamond dollar-sign pins on their lapels) while scenic design is by
Katryne Hecht. The two story scaffolding set with stairways and dinghy paint
job to make it look filthy and the sliding on and off sets for the various
scene changes is impressive. The excellent lighting design is by Tim Cryan
and hard working stage manager Brandon Ferretti and his hard working crew
keep things running smoothly all night long. So for a fun filled evening of
a contemporary musical which will keep you in stitches all night long, be
sure to catch "Urinetown" at Providence College.
URINETOWN ( 3 to 19 April, 2009)
Providence College, Angells Blackfriars Theatre,
549 River Avenue, Providence,RI
