WHAT IS URINETOWN (the Musical)?
In 1995, two members of the Cardiff Giant Theatre group, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, began working on an idea for a musical that was a response to the theories of 18th century economist Thomas Malthus. His Essay on the Principles of Population (1798) discussed the tendency of human beings to outstrip their resources, and the checks in the form of poverty, disease, and starvation that keep societies from moving beyond their means of subsistence. Around the same time, Kotis visited Europe and discovered that most public toilets are pay-to-use. Drawing on inspiration from Malthus, pay-to-pee, and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, Urinetown was born.*
But what is Urinetown? Much like Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” an essay written in the 1700s that recommends eating poor children as a possible solution to the food shortage in Ireland, Urinetown asks us not to take it (or ourselves) too seriously. On stage is a dystopian America that has bowed to the will of one supercorporation—The Urine Good Company. A water shortage led to “the stink years,” at which point the UGC took over water rationing and came up with a perfect solution. If people had to pay every time they used the bathroom, they wouldn’t drink as much water. Especially the poor. The rich, of course, could afford to pee whenever they wanted. Urinetown not only makes the case for water conservation but makes fun of people making the case for water conservation.
Some musicals don’t age well. The positivity and happy endings of Rogers and Hammerstein (excluding The King and I) feel as sappy to me as the Hallmark Channel’s twenty-four hour Christmas movie marathons in November and December. Carousel, with it’s “sometimes a slap is like a kiss” misogyny, is downright offensive. While I love Guys and Dolls, it’s way more guys than dolls. And does it help us define our new, gender-fluid society?
Urinetown has aged like wine; it’s gotten better and even more relevant today than it was in 2001. With corporations like Disney and Coca-Cola gobbling up the competition, it’s become increasingly obvious that most of our politicians kowtow to the corporate dollar rather than the common good. Multibillion dollar oil and gas companies have crushed technological advances that would have led to cleaner living but less oil and gas use. We, as voters and consumers, are right in the middle. Can we have “The Mandalorian” without Disney+, and can we have Disney+ without Marvel and Star Wars and ABC? And we love our cars, don’t we? How can you live in the great state of Texas without spending a few thousand bucks a year on gas?
Hey, look. I don’t want to get into environmentalism and politics right before our fun little show. Just sit back and eat your snacks and enjoy the singing and dancing, some of the best we’ve ever had, by the way. (I’ll miss you next year, Class of 2020.) A fun game you can play is to see how many other musicals we pay homage to in our performance! That should take your mind off of anything troubling in the show. Drink that Coke and order that stretch Hummer for prom. I’ll be gone by 2050, which is when many scientists say our world will become unsustainable, so...hey! Enjoy yourselves. Who needs an environment anyway?
* Inside the Bowels of Urinetown, Background and Analysis, Scott Miller
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