Welcome to the future, and please accept the deepest of condolences about that. In the dystopian future city that St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s brilliant Upper School production of the comedy Urinetown: The Musical takes place in, society has quite literally gone down the toilet. One certainly wouldn’t want to live in the world where this musical is set, but every aspect of its production is sensational to experience.
Following 20 years of drought, a terrible water shortage led the nefarious Caldwell B. Cladwell [senior Halsey Moe] to create the Urine Good Corporation and pass laws preventing people from peeing without paying. Should anyone attempt to evade these laws, a brutal and corrupt police force (maybe this isn’t that far from reality…) will deport them to Urinetown, the mysterious and endlessly contemplated place of punishment which gives the musical its name.
Enter Bobby Strong [junior Jack Romans], a poor boy full of regret and with a desire to help his full-bladdered community. When he meets optimistic young Hope [senior Maddie Flom-Staab], the two become star crossed almost lovers and inspire one another to listen to and follow their hearts in the first of several dazzling duets between these characters whose Broadway-caliber voices complement one another so pleasantly.

Their budding relationship turns awry upon the reveal of Hope’s last name, but not even love can dissuade Bobby from his mission as he launches a rebellion against the UGC and causes at least four of his followers to faint from the overwhelming strength of his charisma, passion, and powerful singing voice.
Anyway, time to move on. As the witty, oversharing narrator Officer Lockstock [senior Evan Leduc] taught everyone, too much exposition can ruin a musical, and the same is true of a musical review.
The Urinetown cast was good at being bad. The diplomatically evil scheming and bribing among the rich as they tried to make cash and the menacing grins and glares among the revolutionaries as they dreamed of murder were executed to a tee. The musical featured elaborate ensembles filled with talented voices, call and response clapping/snapping/chanting sessions, and intricate choreography, and the cast kept up their deviousness all the while.
The music, orchestrated by US Choir Director Anne Klus and performed by pianist Tim Kraack [SPA Class of ‘05], percussionist Todd Mulliken, string bassist Josh Schwalbach, woodwindist James Prindville, and junior Alex Qin, was the perfectly timed powerhouse of the musical, giving life to its songs and drama to its performances.
Some of the best moments in Urinetown were those of physical comedy, an art form that much of the cast learned in the US Fall Play One Man, Two Guvnors. It would be a shame to miss a UGC executive [sophomore Ivan Gunther], a UGC scientist [sophomorew Lea Moore], a cop [freshman Tess Hick], and another cop [junior Tessa Rauch] acting as a human conveyor belt for Cladwell as they sang his praises. Or worse still, not to see Mr. McQueen [junior Justin Zanaska], a suck up member of the UGC staff with a nasally high pitched voice and an argyle vest, pretending to be a bunny that was shot, shocked in an electric chair, and fashioned into fuzzy slippers with a mallet and some clippers.
Urinetown had the audience laughing and clapping for two and half hours straight culminating in the eventual standing ovation every night. On the final night, Flom-Staab and senior Sophia Harrison listed all of their thank yous and handed out bouquets to the crew, orchestra, and Sarah Converse herself as it was the final US production to take place in the Lower School Campus with the new Huss Center under construction.
US Director Eric Severson echoed that sentiment, noting the irony of Urinetown being performed at an auditorium with only a single unisex bathroom available, and assured the audience that the Huss Center will have 11 stalls in the girls bathroom alone. That was met with even more applause.
Urinetown is not just a hilarious musical with an incredible cast and crew, it has purpose and meaning for the real world, too (cue the cast dramatically saying “whaaaaaaaaaaat?” and exaggeratedly turning in unison). As Little Sally said, Urinetown isn’t so much a place as a metaphysical place. And Urinetown exists everywhere, even here. Part of what mawkes the musical funny is the comical implausibility of it all, but global warming is bringing the planet ever closer to the Stink Years.
Maybe people don’t like to be told that their way of life isn’t sustainable, but when presented with that truth in as comical and beautiful a way as Urinetown, it is nearly impossible not to enjoy.