Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

Urinetown music & lyrics by Mark Hollmann, book & lyrics by Greg Kotis

Performance Dates & Tickets

About the Play

Welcome - to Urinetown!
Not the place, of course. The musical.

Originally inspired by coin-operated public toilets in Europe, writer Greg Kotis and composer Mark Hollman fling audiences into one of the most irreverent, clever, and hilariously savage satires ever set to music. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year draught, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens are forced to use public amenities which are regulated by a malevolent, profiteering bureaucracy called U.G.C. (Urine Good Company). Those who break the rules are sent away to a Guantanamo-like prison called 'Urinetown'. Finally, one brave young man named Bobby decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom! It's a show so

Urinetown is a musical quite unlike any other. It parodies the government, big business, and even Broadway itself - audiences familiar with staples like Fiddler On The Roof, West Side Story, Big River and Sweet Charity are sure to roar with laughter at the skewed and skewering musical attacks. Songs such as "Too Much Exposition", "Don't Be The Bunny" and "It's a Privilege to Pee" are sure to have you doubled over... and that's only Act 1!

In 2002, Urinetown won three Tony Awards: Best Director (John Rando), Best Original Score (Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis), and Best Book of a Musical (Greg Kotis). It was also nominated for an additional seven Tonys, including Best Musical and Best Orchestrations.

About the Playwrights

Mark Hollmann is currently writing music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals based on the films Soapdish and My Man Godfrey. He is also developing two new musicals with Greg Kotis: Yeast Nation (the triumph of life), an original story that tells the tale of the dawn of life on Earth, and The Man in the White Suit, a musical version of the 1951 Alec Guiness film. He recently wrote the music and lyrics and starred with Greg Kotis in Eat The Taste at New York’s Barrow Street Theatre. A former member of the Cardiff-Giant Theatre Company in Chicago, he played trombone for the Chicago art-rock band Maestro Subgum and the Whole and played piano for the Second City national touring company and Chicago City Limits. He attended the Making Tuners Workshop at New Tuners Theatre in Chicago and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre workshop in New York. A member of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP, he lives in Manhattan with his wife Jillian, and their son Oliver.

Greg Kotis opened his play Pig Farm in 2006 at The Roundabout Theatre in New York City and at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Other plays include Jobey and Katherine, Baron von Siebenburg Melts Through The Floorboards, and Give The People What They Want. Greg lives in Brooklyn with his wife Ayun, his daughter India, and his son Milo.