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University of Winchester

Urinetown

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Welcome to Urinetown: The Musical. The ‘musical’, not the place.

Urinetown: The Musical is a toe tapping, finger snapping, musical comedy that premiered on Broadway in 2001, winning Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical for writers Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman.    

Drawing on and mashing up the theatrical conventions of Bertolt Brecht and the Broadway musical comedy, Kotis and Hollman have created an hilarious political satire in which the affluent control, and profit from, the effluent.    

Set within a community suffering from a 20-year drought, Urinetown: The Musical follows the trials and tribulations of everyday folk trying to pee in a world where you have to pay the fee. It’s a premise so ludicrous you couldn’t make it up, right? In fact, it’s so staggeringly ridiculous it could only possibly be a musical. And yes, the characters are aware that the title of the show is awful.  

But, at its heart, Urinetown: The Musical is full of… well… heart. In fact, our heroine Hope Cladwell spends a whole song convincing our hero Bobby Strong to listen to and follow his heart. And if you listen to your heart, it’s very quietly telling you get a ticket to Urinetown: The Musical, because you’re now very curious about Urinetown, the place.

"Exuberant sending up of theatrical conventions"

Variety (2001)

"…a sensational piece of performance art, one that acknowledges theatre tradition and pushes it forward as well"

The New York Times (2001)

"Flushed with success"

The Guardian (2014)

This is an amateur production by arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).