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 A little over twenty years ago, Broadway hosted a well-loved and smart musical--and, since then, Broadway has never hosted this musical's (inevitable?) revival.


"Urinetown" is a way of imagining the end of the world. (In 2000, as I recall, "extreme weather" events were not constant features in news stories. But Broadway seemed to understand what kind of future was "en route.")

Both deadly serious and absurd, "Urinetown" describes a future in which rain stops falling for twenty years. To respond to the drought, politicians prohibit citizens from peeing in private. All urination must occur in taxed public toilets; if you can't pay, you can't void your bladder. If you're caught dropping your pants in an alley, the state will murder you; a euphemism for this process is "taking a trip to Urinetown."

The show's villain, Penelope Pennywise, explains the situation in a few trenchant lines:

Twenty years, we've had the drought.
And the reservoirs are all dried up.
I take my bath, now, in a coffee cup....
I boil what's left of it for tea....
And it's a privilege to pee....

In this climate of terror, Trumpian chest-puffing becomes the norm. Even *asking* to make free pee can result in a crackdown:

Well, I think I'll charge you twice....
Or, better yet, have you arrested--
Since you prefer the law gets tested.
And, in Urinetown, you'll see...
Why it's dumb to fight with me....
For the privilege to pee!

Many stars who made a mark on this show are now still pounding Broadway's pavement; I'm thinking of Carolee Carmello, Nancy Opel, Victoria Clark, and Jennifer Laura Thompson. Hunter Foster seems to have moved away from acting--but at least he is still involved in theater. This Broadway production won three of ten possible Tony Awards--and I think I'm not alone in believing it deserved just a few more.

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