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 dr...