Mirza
Jahic
Humi
16
8/3/03
Pin
# 2406
“Urinetown, not the place, the
musical” as mentioned in the opening act pretty much secured me to the seat
throughout the whole show. I was extremely curious as to how a musical will be
performed because I never really attended one and greatly anticipated the
actual laughs and experience that past viewers and critics so openly uttered
and commented. Making it a little more interesting is the fact that I had to
sit right next to Mrs. Bresnan herself, (god forbid I fall asleep during this
play, oh my God, would I fail the class or what) making me twice as aware of
the musical and open to change. Nonetheless, after experiencing the opening act
with the beautiful lighting and group singing I was immediately captured and
remained so until the end of the show.
About the musical…well, where do I
start? My explanation of it will never be as valuable and memorable as actually
experiencing it first hand. It was quite an experience, that and Mrs. Bresnan
offering mints to everybody around her. Humor aside, I finally understood why
critics were raving about this musical. It was extremely well performed, the
lighting was great, the costumes were amazing, and the plot was well, unusual.,
yet attractive.
Urinetown decided to suppress
seriousness and emphasize humor to bring out the point from within. I think
that this was a great idea. Humor tends to relax the individual and pretty much
open him/her to change. The content of this musical was as entertaining as it
was educational, in a funky, twisted way. Well, at least that’s what I caught
the drift off. The reason I say educational is because Urinetown is trying to
inform the people of basically the bad side of Capitalism ( this by the way is
in a nutshell and I will explain it in detail as I progress). A state where
money pretty much buys off anything and anyone like for example Senator Fipp that
was involved with Caldwell B. Cladwell, the evil master mind that actually made
a living out of charging people to pee, hence the name Urinetown.
Why is Urinetown
so successful? It involves corruption, suffering, and huge differences in
ownership and financial standing between the rich and the poor. I wonder why
this musical is so successful then. It is because we can relate to it and why
do we relate to it? Simple, because this is the cold fact about the world that
we live in today, only watered down with humor so it doesn’t seem as bad. But I
think every individual caught the glimpse of it as they left the theater and
decided to think and chat about it afterwards.
The cold fact of
the capitalistic world today, where the rich get richer and the poor get
poorer. The cold fact of the world today, that money can pretty much buy
anything the mind desires if not absolutely everything.
The plot of Urinetown was easy to
follow and laid out nicely over a period of time. All the scenes were very well
performed and executed precisely with great passion, as if this plot sort of
affected everybody personally and with great might. The plot of a nation or a
group of people organizing and coming together to face the dictator or evil
mastermind and end this sad world that they live in now and offer a change, a
change that the people agree on and a change that will benefit the nation or
groups of people as a whole, not the individual with the most influence and
power. Who would know that the actual evil mastermind Mr. Cladwell did the
people a favor and was working for himself as well as for the people by
regulating the flow of the dirty water and ensuring clean drinking water for
every individual, even if there was a price behind “free urination” as I like
to call it, he nonetheless gave the people what they needed, not what they
wanted.
Even though the plot was the
suffering and pain that the individuals just like me and you had to go trough,
their uprising and eventually how they overcame and achieved control over “free
urination”, that to me was the real plot even though the government might be
bad in some instances and might not always bow down to the people’s needs, they
sort of act as a law or barrier, a separation that keeps us from the inevitable
sad fact, which is premature death or extinction. If the government gave in to
every single demand, there would be no organization and no peace, because just
like in the play, if the people unite, only then are they strong enough to face
anything in their path. The play ended in a sad and ironic way. The people were
disgusted with the fact that they had to pay to pee and eventually organized to
overcome the evil Mr. Cladwell, which in return led all of them to death. This
brings me to the quote that goes “You can’t live with them, you can’t live
without them”, even though this was aimed at women, it also applies to the
corrupt and over controlling government in today’s society.
The character conflict was
surprising because I really did not expect the main character, Bobby Strong to
die or be dropped from the building as it happened in the play. At least he
died informed and in love, knowing that he was living in Urinetown all along. I
came to this musical thinking that the conflict will be overcome and that the
boy would get the girl, well, the girl did not get the boy and the conflict
only escaladed into a bigger conflict.
The dialogue was extremely well
written as well as performed. All of the characters had clear voices and great
singing talent. Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell were my favorite singing
choices. Another fact that I noticed is that the characters were acting in a
“now” timeframe, sort of acting as if this could happen any day or perhaps is
already happening. The language was thus, exactly as we speak it today, which
emphasized my statement above; that this could happen any day or is perhaps
already happening.
The stage set, the lightning and the
colors were extremely well matched. The stage set had a poor look to it,
somewhat as if it was located in some ghetto. A lot of brown and black was used
to emphasize the actual situation of the individuals living in Urinetown. I
loved the poor lightning effects that signified the dramatic experiences that
people living in Urinetown had to go trough. The switch between the actual
Urinetown “relief wall” and Mr. Cladwell’s office was done nicely and really
organized by using the other face of the wall, and by sort of making it a
little more futuristic and sort of richer by turning on the big, tall lights on
the main wall. This in return gave more lightning to Mr. Cladwell’s office that
added to the flavor of modernism and power quite a bit.
Now, this part is what I enjoyed
quite a bit. The make up, the accessories used and of course the gestures that
were silently uttered with body language are what I was fascinated with. The
costumes were organized and appropriately fitted throughout the proper scenes,
meaning that the costumes did not create a distraction but rather worked with
the plot to state the point of a particular scene.
The music, ahhhh the music… This is
a department where I am proud to say I really enjoyed. All of the characters
like for example, Bobby Strong or Hope Caldwell had beautiful voices and mixed
together with the orchestra which by the way was extravagant makes for a great
musical. “You’re in Urinetown…the place that we call Urinetown!!!” The song
where all of the characters were singing about Urinetown seriously gave me goose
bumps as it was really touching and extremely well performed.
Urinetown was a great experience
showing the bad side of capitalism, the state where money can pretty much buy
anything that the heart or mind desires. Urinetown is a world where greed and
corruption rule the innocent masses of the poor and where the rich eventually
develop an idea to charge the people to pee. It is a true story to a certain
extent that was watered down with humor so that our current situation does not
appear so gruesome to us, but in reality we are all hypnotized by the fortune
500 to act, buy, speak, and pretty much do whatever they want us to because who
are we to oppose the rich, right? Well, Urinetown shows a crowd gathering and
organizing and eventually uprising against the rich and corrupted to stop the
violence and to give the people what they are entitled to by law, unless of
course money overrides law, similar to what we have in Urinetown. So if nothing
is what it seems, what is the point of living in a horrible place like
Urinetown? I saw a bit of it between Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell. You can
torture us, you can deprive us of every single thing that makes us human, you
can kill and slaughter but you will never kill the love that we share between
each other, similar to what Bobby and Hope had. Their love is what kept them
strong, what kept them motivated and what in return made them overcome. There
is something worth living for in this world, besides being successful and
owning materialistic property and that is something that is pure and that money
cannot and will not ever be able to buy, and that is simply…love.
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