Welcome!
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Sun Prairie High School’s Production of Urinetown – the Musical! Urinetown is a political and social satire set in a city where a 20 year drought has brought on a devastating water shortage. In order to conserve water, the government has instituted a series of reforms outlawing the use of private toilets… so now everyone has to pay to pee! Using public amenities operated by Urine Good Company (UGC), the rebel poor are oppressed by the UGC executives and corrupt political elite. If people refuse to pay the fee to pee, they are immediately hauled off to Urinetown… where nobody knows exactly what will happen. Urinetown is the tale of devastation, revolution, & hope!
When choosing a musical for this year, I wanted to push our students and our production staff to think out of the box and try something different. Urinetown is truly a fabulous show with an awful title... but it has allowed our students to connect many of our modern societal issues with a show that will leave the audience both laughing and thinking. An example of epic theater, Urinetown poses ideas and lessons to its audience instead of creating a theatrical reality on the stage. Although not as well-known as other musicals, Urinetown won several Tony Awards in 2002 after its opening on Broadway in August of 2001. Filled with a variety of musical styles and harmonies that will give you with goose bumps, as well as an intelligent and witty script, Urinetown is both entertaining and educational.
Urinetown has been one of the most enjoyable shows I have ever directed. I have been thoroughly impressed with the students throughout this production process. With a cast of 51 students, and over 20 technical theater students working on the show, the overall level of dedication and enthusiasm was tremendous! Our conversations about the themes and style of the show allowed the actors to contribute significantly to their characters onstage.
With any theatrical production, so much time and effort are put forth behind the scenes… a very special thank you goes to the production staff and volunteers, including: Amy Frank, Kelsey Odorizzi, Steve Sveum, Joy Ninedorf, Kelly Jean Ohl, Kristi Ninedorf, Rob Wagner, Michael Gray, Prudhvi Challa, Tom Littrell, Heidi Weber, Jamie Brown, and Brett Price. The work they put into this show and the results are way beyond any expectation I could have had when deciding to direct this musical – the set is HUGE; the dancing is INTENSE; the music is CHILLING; the rhythms are TRICKY; the costumes are MANY! To put it simply – this is a BIG show and I am so thankful that what we have created together with these students does justice to what the creators of Urinetown would have wanted.
In addition to the production staff for this show, I want to thank the families of our cast and crew who helped to make this production a reality. Thank you for volunteering your time and talents with us, and most importantly for lending us your children for the past two months!
Now get comfortable and get ready to laugh, to groan, to think… as you are taken to Amenity #9 where Urinetown – the Musical begins!
Enjoy the show!
Marsha Heuer
