After nearly two months of rehearsals, City High’s production of Urinetown will premiere on the 25th. Urinetown is a satirical musical that is set in a dystopian future where a severe water shortage has led to a ban on toilets. Citizens must pay to use public restrooms, which leads to a rebellion. With its comedic script and great music, the show offers both a fun show to watch and thoughtful commentary.
“When I learned what it was about, listened to the music, and figured out the message of the show I knew that I was going to audition Urinetown is really unique in the way that it’s presented,” said Jillian Leman ‘26, who plays the lead female role of Hope Cladwell, “while there are a lot of happy, humorous moments, it’s also oddly dark at the same time. It’s been really fun playing with those different textures, like when to be serious vs unserious, and really finding that sweet spot. Urinetown actually parodies a lot of popular musicals, making plenty of references to iconic moments in shows like Les Mis and West Side Story. Actually this whole musical is kind of cheesy and stereotypical on purpose, while also sending a really serious message that we hope the audience will understand.”
Urinetown has been rehearsing for the past couple of months, and has begun preparations for opening night, with tech week officially beginning on April 18th, and a dry tech run through without actors, dress rehearsals will follow that next week.
“So far we seem to be moving along well, there really is a great excitement from the cast and tech crews as we get closer and things seem to be coming together,” said Doug Lestina, tech director.
The set has undergone numerous changes in recent weeks as the crew works to accommodate the needs of the performance, as the crew figures out how to best get the stage to fit all of the needs of the cast and crew, and still appear as they had originally envisioned it.
“This production is different because it has a way smaller cast than in the past,” said Julia Shannon, who plays Josephine Strong, the mother in Urinetown. “But I like it because it makes sure everyone can connect and bond.”
The smaller cast means that every member of the cast is involved and plays an important part in the story, all of the actors are in more scenes, and some play multiple parts in the show, so the sound crew will also face the challenge of having all 22 cast members mic’d up.
¨We are going to have more lights, but we have a pretty experienced light crew, so that shouldn’t be an issue. It’s always a fun challenge to figure out the design of the show and make everything come together,¨ said Lestina, ¨I think the audience will be surprised how funny the show is given its dark themes. It definitely is a really clever show, and the comedy shines through the darkness. It’s not as well-known of a show, but generally is enjoyed by the audiences that see it.¨
Urinetown will perform a total of four shows throughout the weekend.
“Every person cast is super talented, and it makes me want to be better so that we’re on the same level. I couldn’t name a single person that doesn’t deserve to be there,” said Jillian Conlon, who plays Soupy Sue.
