#191 - Smoke Show Theatre Reviews | Urinetown

I find myself in Williamsburg most weekends at this point. If it wasn't Williamsburg it would be akin to a nearby village with better shops, a quick hours walk from my door, the location of my favorite haberdasheries, cinemas, and artisanal Swedish candy shops.

I mostly go because it's where I buy my cats food (a task that has been driving me batty lately because uh one of them only likes poultry and that feels irresponsible to feed a the moment!) but like if I want to shop, toodle, or get the best coffee in the city and stroll along the waterfront for a while, I'm there. L Train never dies babeeeey (but it doesn't run to 8th ave on the weekends either).

On a recent excursion, I took myself over to 4th st AKA Slop Bowl City to get Chipotle because even though I have negative views of the company after working there for two weeks back in 2014 (they basically run like an MLM Franchise and orientation was hours of propagandandistic videos about how one day I could own my very own Chipolte and at that point you also get a car from corporate like, okay Mary Kay) but when you're craving it, you're craving it, and Qdoba just won't do.

And right across the street was an advertisement that made me stop short.

One of my all time favorite musicals had a limited engagement run and I almost didn't hear about it despite being on like sixteen mailing lists about shows happening in new york????!?

Anyway, I badgered the bestie into going, thought I could get some cheapy seats, ended up not being able to get cheap seats and deciding it was worth the orchestra prices because I've never seen the full musical done with any sort of budget (but the one time I did see it they made extremely fun choices with staging due to budget because creativity is in the constraints!) and, well, I make poor financial decisions when it comes to my enjoyment of life sometimes but with how the last few weeks have been going it felt...worth it.

And IT WAS!

God I LOVE MUSICALS!!!!

I love musicals that don't apologize for being musicals and having music that sounds like broadway and dancing that's fun and elegant at the SAME TIME and songs that RIP and actors who are acting their fucking faces off and heightening all the comedy via their commitment to the bit.

Not a single song could be pulled for radio play as a mediocre pop song and THAT'S WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR!!! Songs! That! Move! Plots! Forward!

Upon intermission, my friend remarked that Hope's actress felt "very Glinda" which was so astute because the actress WAS LITERALLY GLINDA ON BROADWAY. && she was so funny. Her character spends the majority of Act II tied to a chair and she was still making me laugh the most with her silent physicality.

Perfect casting happening like I NEED this show to go to Broadway now if only so we get a cast recording.

We even had an understudy for Ms. Pennywise and getting to see someone give their all all to Privilege To Pee was a privilege to see.

She was so good and the audience definitely let out an involuntary groan because I'm sure a lot of them were there for Keala Settle and I get that but I also appreciated that the audience immediately corrected itself and cheered/whooped/clapped for Tiffany Mann! Understudies RULE they have the hardest jobs in theater!

Jordan Fischer pulled out some gospel church choir style for the end of Run Freedom Run and it felt so correct when he did. Like that was definitely always meant to happen and be there and it heightened the choir joke they pulled like two seconds before that. ALSO there was very very cute/fun butt wiggles choreo and like maaaaan talented people are so cool and funny and charming when they're all up there, doing their thing, having a good time with the cast and the material and the audience.

Urinetown isn't a musical without flaws, but it's short and punchy so even in the songs I don't....love they're over so quick it doesn't drag down the enjoyment. The act structure is wildly lopsided but idk it's never bothered me because that's true of 97% of musicals. The story from the beginning tells you it's both completely serious and silly. If it tried to make the story Bigger I think it would lose a lot of charm and facetiousness.

The entire show is a joke. Starting with the title. But because it's a joke it manages to wonderfully badger entrenched ideas about capitalism, municipal services, privatization, nepotism, and resistance politique.

In Urinetown, the Water Wars happened. And the public lost.

The show never lingers in the despair but rather uses it to fuel the revolution at the heart of the show. Which happens for about 10 min at the end of Act I and then is shown in its immediate aftermath where infighting and uh, not having a plan beyond "run!" has really come back to bite them.

I don't think this show could have been written now, because even though they hand wave questions of hydraulics right there in the exposition, there is no political coherency in that beautiful way a lot of art from that era doesn't. It's kind of gesturing towards the fact that there is a problem but also wants you to know it's smart enough to understand that there are no real heroes in this nuanced situation and that it is critical enough to know that there is no such thing as a perfect plan.

Urine Good Company is a terrible conglomerate who is using corrupt politicians to pad their pockets by literally killing the underclass when they cannot afford to pay for basic human functions.

The rebels are correct in their observations, but they lack any coherency of revolution and therefore achieve fleeting gains before suffering tremendous losses.

Love doesn't save them all, it actually doesn't save anyone ever at any point during the show.

But it still matters.

The protests still matter especially when the question of whether you'd rather die scraping pennies together in order to go to the bathroom for years on end vs. live short-but-happy indulgent lives where you can pee and drink water regardless of the drought is no longer abstract.

(The show was spawned while the writer was on vacation in Europe and had to pay to pee in a public lavatory. So. It's always been here. Flint STILL DOESN'T HAVE WATER. CAN SOMEONE LIKE DO SOMETHING/ANYTHING ABOUT FLINT MICHIGAN STILL NOT HAVING CLEAN WATER????)

The thing about the show, and all art in general, is that it moves at a pace that I am not having those questions during the show. That's the magical balancing act–the show itself does not suffer from the existential questions the audience will grapple with afterwards.

The politicians in Urinetown were ahead of their time back in 2001, they too were/are unmoved by mass shaming and the cries of their constituents. (As long as the stock exchange is still open they can and will sell us out to make...more money. I hope they're sooOooO happy dying the richest person in the graveyard. I hope that works out real well for the legacy they fought so hard to create only to have it rendered absolutely insignificant by their own selfish actions.)

Does love save us? No, maybe not. But it makes us human, and that's the important thing we hang on to.

All the way down to Urinetown.

SmokeShow Rating: 😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️/5

the band, the lighting, and the staging was so SO excellent. I had a 5/5 time in terms of enjoyment of the show itself and the "problems" I may have had are with the book – and that's not something the performance itself has the power to change. I wish there had been a few more modern references slipped in (the audience couldn't get enough of a tariffs joke) and I didn't think all the Famous Actors deserved as much pre-applause as they got. but again, that's a gripe with the audience being sycophantic before talent has proven itself on stage than with the production. I would pay to see it again with this cast on Broadway though!!! I really really would love that cast recording either way tbh i don't think the obc has the best versions of their songs captured and that could be corrected 22 years later!

bring back FUN! bring back MUSICALS that aren't trying to be made into movies! this one couldn't and shouldn't be and i love it for that!