Urinetown - Review

Apollo Theatre, London

*****

Music & lyrics by Mark Hollmann

Book & lyrics by Greg Kotis

Directed by Jamie Lloyd

Jonathan Slinger

After a successful three year run on Broadway a decade ago and a recent stint at London’s St James’ Theatre, Urinetown finally makes it to the West End. Set in a dystopian, drought-ridden future where corporations control the only toilets and the down at heel population must pay for the ‘privilege to pee’, Urinetown’s producers must be wondering what will put audiences off first – its title or its subject matter. It would be a great shame if either did because this is a seriously funny, subversively witty show. (And actually, Greg Kotis’ knowing script gets that joke in long before any reviewer has thought of it. Breaking the fourth wall at will, Jonathan Slinger’s deliciously degenerate narrator, Police Officer Lockstock, tells us that nothing kills a show like ‘too much exposition’. ‘How about a terrible title?’ asks local urchin Little Sally).

Weaving the broadest slapstick humour into a grim, highly relevant and perhaps portentous Malthusian tale, Urinetown is a musical that never stops poking fun at its own genre and unlike so many of that ilk, resists the temptation to eventually embrace its clichés in the final act. Driving it all along is Mark Hollmann’s excellent score – ranging from gospel pastiche, to rousing ‘Les Mis’ chorus – and witty lyrics. Some of the songs may be a little forgettable, but they’re still perfectly pitched within the show.

Jamie Lloyd’s direction, aided by Soutra Gilmour’s wonderfully dingy design, is razor sharp and Ann Yee’s choreography is at times a comic masterclass all of its own. Musical director Alan Williams delivers not just an excellent band, but also, in the big second act showstopper ‘Run, Freedom, Run’, quite simply some of the tightest and most polished chorus singing to be found on a West End stage.

The cast is of the very highest quality – Jenna Russell is predictably wonderful as the fearsome gatekeeper of the urinal Miss Pennywise, while Slinger's Lockstock relishes many of the best lines. Karis Jack’s Little Sally and Mark Meadows’ sleazy senator deserve special mentions, as does an exceptionally strong ensemble.

Urinetown is modern musical theatre at its very best.


Booking to 24th January 2015 

Urinetown - Charity Gala Feature

Jenna Russell in Urinetown

I don’t usually plug gala performances, but as Urinetown opens in the West End, I am pleased to get behind this (number) one.

It’s on Monday October 20th supporting www.Water.org, for where Urinetown is a hilarious and satirical musical set in a futuristic, dystopian society where the Earth's water supply has been depleted, therefore making private toilets unthinkable and against the law, THERE IS A REAL GLOBAL WATER CRISIS, that we, in rainy, temperate, Northern Europe, are spared. 

Urinetown may be a dark comedy but the Water Crisis facts are the grimmest, bleakest of realities:

• 780 million people in the world lack access to safe water. 2.5 billion lack improved sanitation.

• 1 in 9 people don’t have safe water to drink. 1 in 4 doesn’t have a toilet.

• Every minute at least one child dies due to a water-related illness.

• More people in the world have access to a mobile phone than a toilet.

This special gala performance celebrates the beginning of a long-term fundraising collaboration between Urinetown and Water.org. Urinetown will be donating proceeds from the gala to the nonprofit organization, as well as providing ongoing support in conjunction with its West End run. 

“Water.org welcomes Urinetown’s support to share our vision of a world where everyone has access to safe drinking water and can experience the dignity of a toilet,” says Water.org co-founder Gary White…

…whilst Jamie Lloyd, the show’s acclaimed director adds “The best sort of theatre engages directly with the world.  It may be great fun, but it should also be vital and apposite, and perhaps, instigate a broader discussion.  Urinetown’s dystopian future does not have to be a prediction unless we make it so.  We are delighted that the production can assist the mission of Water.org whilst keeping its audience laughing along the way.” 

Tickets for the Gala range from a very reasonable £29.50, through to a £125 premium splash, that gets you into the afterparty too. If it wasn’t such a bargain, you’d think they were taking the piss!!

You can buy the tickets here:

http://www.urinetown.co.uk/gala.php 

The Threepenny Opera

Birmingham Rep, Birmingham

****

By Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
English translation of the dialogue by Robert David MacDonald
English translation of the lyrics by Jeremy Sams

Joey Hickman, Stephen Collins, Garry Robson, TJ Holmes, Joe Vetch 

There is a raw contemporary relevance about Birmingham Rep's staging of Brecht and Weill's famous work. Against a current backdrop of increasing social deprivation and a widening gap between the poor and the "haves", this co-production with diversity champions Graeae Theatre ingeniously combines able-bodied performers with disabled actors, lobbing in the challenge of actor-muso responsibilities for good measure. 

The staging is raw brickwork enhanced with projections, with both dialog and lyrics being signed as well as being shown as surtitles. We first meet the Peachum family, where Gary Robson's pater-familias is one of the evening's gems. Robson's rough diamond cockney charm is deliciously credible and his explanation of how he has carved up London into different thieving boroughs has echoes of The Long Good Friday's Bob Hoskins. Mrs Peachum is played by Victoria Oruwari, who delivers an exquisite soprano voice. The star however of this (distinctly company-based) show is CiCi Howells, as the much put upon Polly, the Peachums' daughter. In this her first leading role, Howells steps up to the plate magnificently, delivering voice and presence that at all times convinces us of her tortuous journey in love with and then married to Milton Lopes' villainous Macheath (aka Mack The Knife). And when Howells is not singing countless numbers, she drops back into the ensemble and along with the rest of the troupe is responsible for playing up to four musical instruments during the night.

Natasha Lewis, Milton Lopes, Cici Howells

Other notables amongst the cast include Ben Goffe whose (far too brief) tap routine was brilliant, Amelia Cavallo's Jenny, whose smoky, steamy A Little Knocking Shop In Bethnal Green was a fun duet with Lopes whilst Natasha Lewis' Lucy was another treat.

There are flaws, mind. Lopes' Macheath disappoints. Excellent movement, but vocally the actor is nowhere near the menacing charm that his raffish murderer demands. And from a political perspective, whilst the show is meant to challenge and also to protest, some of Jeremy Sam's translation proves too much of a picket line to wade through. There is unnessecary offence too. Politicians and Royalty can be considered fair game for lampooning, but a song that mocks the British Army treads on very thin ice. At one point, a video projection of today's real-life “baddies” screens an image of David Cameron immediately after one of Jimmy Savile. Cameron may well be a political laughing stock, but to compare him to the notorious paedophile is both infantile in gesture and offensive to Savile's victims. The creative team can do better than this.

This Threepenny Opera's strengths though far outweigh its weaknesses. The tales’ references to a flawed judiciary and a fractured world are currently being echoed in Unrinetown, a show on stage in the West End and this show packs at least as big a punch as the far more grandly staged London offering. This is a deliciously unconventional production of a classic piece of musical theatre, performed by a company who present an alternative, stirring and profoundly wholesome approach to the genre. There are moments when the on-stage talent in Birmingham is quite simply inspirational and humbling.

Runs to 12th April 2014

Then touring to the West Yorkshire Playhouse

Urinetown

St James Theatre, London

****

Music & lyrics by Mark Hollmann

Book & lyrics by Greg Kotis

Directed by Jamie Lloyd

Richard Fleeshman confronts Jenna Russell

More than a decade after it's acclaimed Broadway debut, Urinetown splashes down on this side of the Atlantic, premiering at London's bijou St James Theatre. Brash and brassy, the show is set in an America of the future. Water is scarce, sewerage is rationed and evil big business controls the municipal toilets, where "spending a penny" costs just that and sometimes considerably more. Packing a seriously portentous message (wise minds have long suggested that future wars will be fought over water rather than oil), the show is a satirical meta-musical, that not only takes the piss out of peeing, but also out of its own genre too.

The style throughout is of a 1960’s graphic novel. The bad guys are really bad, the cops are in the pay of the suits and the poor are down-trodden. The violence is beautifully choreographed and when the (copious) stage-blood flows it is often as a thick black goo as well as the classic scarlet, mimicking the comic-books' monochrome. Thomas Malthus is the other literary reference that streams through the show. Jonathan Slinger (who only recently was the RSC’s Hamlet at Stratford) opens proceedings as sardonic cop Officer Lockstock, sat on stage in a mise en scene, quietly reading from the 18th century philosopher as the audience take their seats. Malthus’ apocalyptic predictions drive the tale, prophesying that ultimately the world’s resources will not be able to sustain its geometrically expanding human population. 

Jamie Lloyd again lays down his marker as a creator of visionary theatre. Working with a first class company his caricatured characters are as hilarious as they are disturbing. Musical theatre's grand dame in waiting, Jenna Russell, is Penelope Pennywise the grotesquely rubber-aproned supervisor of Public Amenity 9. Her role down amongst the city's low lifes is to guard the facility, ensuring that only those who pay, can pee. With her ghostly, ghastly, white-slapped face Russell is sublime and her big number, It’s A Privilege To Pee, is a masterclass in performance.

Also starring is Richard Fleeshman as Bobby Strong, the hero who dares to challenge the system. Fleeshman does not disappoint and if his big number Look At The Sky is a touch too heavy on the ironic melodrama, he more than makes up for it in delivery. As corporate baddie, Caldwell B. Cladwell, Simon Paisley Day is everything a villain should be. With a moustache inspired by Moriarty and the sharpest satirical dialog, Day relishes the role and is a joy to watch throughout. At times the show’s structure creaks more than it leaks. Lockstock's role is also that of occasional narrator, a mechanism that too often seems to be an easy way out for the writers, checking up that the audience “geddit” just in case the show has nauseated rather than amused.

The strengths of this production however lie within the carefully crafted values that producer Julian Stoneman has evidently insisted (and spent a fortune) upon. The acting company is top drawer throughout with even supporting roles being outstanding. Karis Jack’s Little Sally is a cracker and Adam Pearce’s thuggishly rotund Officer Barrel (Lockstock’s sidekick) is another modest glimpse of excellence. After the interval the glorious ensemble number Run, Freedom, Run displays every sign of evolving into the show-stopper that the cast clearly hope it to be. Soutra Gilmour's ingeniously grim designs of sewer and slum with multi-level multiple revolves suit the steeply raked theatre perfectly, alongside Ann Yee’s choreography and Kate Water’s multiple fight designs that are delivered with pinpoint drill and perfectly timed conviction.

Urinetown is musical theatre of the highest standard. Clearly staged with a deserved transfer in mind it is the work of a cast and creative team at the top of their game and demands to be seen. You're in for a treat!

Runs until 3rd May 2014