By Joe Pollack
When Urinetown: The Musical opened on Broadway in 2001, it earned 10 Tony nominations, won in three categories, ran almost 1,000 performances and toured from Boston to Los Angeles.
So why is it only now coming to St. Louis, as part of the Rep’s Off-Ramp series at the Grandel Theatre?
Welcome to the city of incredible shyness, of distaste toward—and laws against—bad language, nudity, even discussion of bodily functions. Welcome to the city where actors said “Bleep!” and interrupted dialogue and songs during a Muny production of Chicago. Welcome to the city where a lengthy court battle ensued before Hair could be seen onstage. Where the local power structure embarrassed Washington University when they rented space to the Theatre Project Company, which dared to present Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.
But the Rep, after surviving Take Me Out, a show with lots of full male nudity, will stage Urinetown, a satire about corporate excesses and a CEO who takes advantage of a water shortage to force the citizens to use his urinals and pay for the privilege. There are heroes and villains and lots of singing and dancing, not to mention a revolt among the populace to regain some necessary—even vital—rights.
Expect to see a brilliant casting coup by the Rep’s Steve Woolf, who has lined up many of our favorite local actors for roles in a savage political work that has overtones of Bertolt Brecht and Clifford Odets. Joneal Joplin, a Rep regular since 1972, portrays Caldwell B. Cladwell, the villain of the piece. Ben Nordstrom, an actor with a very bright future, will be Bobby Strong, our hero, and Michele Burdette Elmore plays his mother. Steve Isom is cast as Officer Lockstock, the policeman in charge of enforcing the pay-for-pee laws, and Zoe Vonder Haar appears as Penelope Pennywise, the matron in charge of Amenity #9, one of Cladwell’s facilities. Rob Ruggiero directs, as he did—stylishly—for Take Me Out.
St. Louisans love their hometown actors like they love their hometown athletes, and they may complain less about “dirty” theater if they realize that these are not only familiar people but also just actors playing parts. It’s a hoot to hear the Rep talk like an NFL team on the day after the draft, claiming loudly that it just chose the best available person—auditions, scouting reports, same thing—and not a nephew of a coach or someone who could easily be signed or who would fill a specific need. “The casting was because of great auditions” was the Rep’s public position, and Woolf noted, in praise of the St. Louis actors, “They all were coming up aces.”
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