Urinetown (NY City Center Encores!)

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“What an awful name for a musical,” spouts Little Sally (a brilliantly talented Pearl Scarlett Gold) as one of the narrators of the New York City Center Encores’ witty production of the 2001 surprise hit Urinetown.  Yes, it is, but it’s also an entertaining show that actually has inadvertent relevance to today’s audience with its artful jabbing at big business.

First a hit at the New York International Fringe Festival, Urinetown moved to the American Theater of Actors where it made waves, leading to a move to Broadway’s Henry Miller’s Theatre where its seedy subject fit perfectly into the slightly decrepit venue.  (The Henry Miller’s Theatre is now the spiffy Stephen Sondheim Theatre.)

The musical won three Tony Awards, one for its director plus for Best Book (Greg Kotis) and Best Score (Kotis/lyrics and Mark Hollmann/music) and went on to run nearly a thousand performances in addition to extensive domestic and foreign engagements.

Urinetown has a tongue-in-cheek, self-referential flair, taking on and mocking the styles of the works of Mark Blitzstein (The Cradle Will Rock), Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (Threepenny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) plus the tropes and peculiarities of musical theater, itself.

The show opens with Officer Lockstock (Greg Hildreth, low-keyed and hilarious) walking with Little Sally introducing the play and its characters.  The two will be the sardonic narrators, often commenting on the plot as well as participating in it.  His cop partner is Officer Barrel (Christopher Fitzgerald, brilliant, as usual, in his hangdog interpretation).

Set in a dystopian world where 20 years of drought has turned the act of relieving oneself into a political hot potato.  Public relief stations are all controlled by the mega-corporation Urine Good Hands (UGH) owned by the evil business titan Caldwell B. Cladwell (Rainn Wilson, fine in an uncharacteristically dark role).  These toilets are the only outlet for urination and other bodily functions.  Going elsewhere is subject to removal to Urinetown, a place from which no one ever returns.

The very worst is manned by the heartless Penelope Pennywise (Keala Settle, finding comic depth in her evil proprietor) who sends Old Man Strong (Kevin Cahoon) off to Urinetown to meet his fate when he can’t come up with the pee-fee and is forced to pee on a tree.  Her comfort station is co-managed by the youthfully heroic Bobby Strong (Jordan Fisher, a fine leading man) who had to watch his own father being taken off.

Into this skid row wanders the pretty, naive Hope Cladwell (a fine, crystal-voiced Stephanie Styles), just graduated from “the most expensive school in the world.”  At first she’s out of her element, but love of young Strong slowly makes change her mind about her evil father, sort of.  She is kidnapped by the motley crew of down-and-out pee-protesters leading to a series of uproariously comic scenes fleshed out by the best songs of the show, while poor Hope is loosely bound to an office chair on wheels which allows her to skim about with the dancers.

Evil doers include the avaricious Senator Fipp (Josh Breckenridge, comically smarmy) and comic gay UGH functionary Mr. McQueen (Jeff Hiller, overdoing the swishy gestures).

The score is a tribute to thirties’ musicals of Blitzstein and Weill whose motifs are everywhere from the opening “Urinetown” to the triumphant finale, “We’re Not Sorry.”   There’s a sweet love song (“Follow Your Heart”) and even a gospel number (“Run, Freedom, Run”).  It’s a rich score despite all the genteel pastiche and the brilliance of Kotis and Hollman’s songs is how they own the pastiche.

Clint Ramos’ ingenious scenery cleverly features a row of port-a-potties that open to reveal the spiffy offices of Urine Good Hands. Sophia Choi’s costumes wittily lampoon both the poor and the rich.  All is illuminated by Justin Townsend’s lighting.

Mayte Natalio’s choreography rises organically out of the story and is absolutely terrific:  intricate, stylish and brilliantly performed by a motley cast who somehow meld under the direction of Teddy Bergman.

Bergman’s stage direction and Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s musical direction of The Encores! Orchestra kept the show rolling along while shooting sparks of brilliance from beginning to end.

Urinetown (through February 15, 2025)

New York City Center Encores!

New York City Center, 131 West 55^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-582-1212 or visit http://www.NYCityCenter.org

Running time: two hours and 15 minutes including one intermission