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.

Directed by David Vosburgh
Musical Direction by David Keith Stiver
Choregraphy by Pamela LaForce

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!

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.

The Cast:

Bobby Strong - Kenny Fadeley
Officer Lockstock - Eric Oswald
Barrel - Brandon Hood
Cladwell - Rob Albrecht
McQueen - Don Bernardo
Fipp - Marc Finney
Hot Blades - Michael Rogan
Old Man Strong - Bernie Keister
Hope - Katelyn Vogias
Pennywise - Heather Hersh
Little Sally - Miranda Fantz
Becky Two Shoes - Lisa Pittman
Josephine Strong - Theresa Benyo
Ensemble - Kourtney Highland, Brie Arko, Leah Frires, Ashley Berman, Jerry Schaber, Michael Guffey

'Urinetown' in line for good comedy
by Herb Hammer
The Chagrin Valley Times, July 30 2008

A lot of thought and hand wringing must have gone on before Chagrin Valley Little Theatre decided to go ahead and stage the wild and wacky Broadway musical "Urinetown."

What are they doing talking about urine right here in sophisticated Chagrin Falls? Well, they are, and they're doing one fabulous job of it.

The inventive director David Vosburgh has chosen an all-around terrific cast. They sing, they dance and create the looniest characters librettist Greg Kotis had in mind.

There is a story to go along with the 18 delirious songs by Mark Hollmann. It takes half of the first act to tune in to the all-too-crazy script.

We're in any town you might want to think of. An endless drought has plagued the city. Private bathrooms are outlawed. The poor people must stand in long lines and pay crippling fees, apparently many pennies, to use the facilities.

The whole operation is run by the evil Caldwell B. Cladwell and his corporation UGC or Urine Good Company.

When one of the latrine workers falls in love with Hope Cladwell, the voluptuous daughter of the vicious company president, a revolution follows.
Comedy wins out. The writers have done send-ups of a dozen or so old Broadway shows. Each is funnier than the last -- "Les Miserables," "Fiddler on the Roof," "West Side Story" and several others. Watch carefully. Some of them may slip by.

Greg Kotis takes aim at everything Broadway. Boy meets girl, romance, meaningful asides, exposition and special effects all get a ruthless kidding.

The show is all a give-and-take process for the audience. Sometimes you love it, and sometimes you hate it. But as the first act is coming to a close, you're loving it once more and forever to the very end.

Eric Oswald plays the police officer and the narrator. He continuously reminds us that we're watching a musical comedy. He's splendid in the role, almost as though he's keeping things from going completely haywire.

Katelyn Vogias plays Hope, the daughter, and Kenneth Fadeley plays Bobby Strong, Hope's new boyfriend. Both are continuously wonderful.

Little Sally, played by Miranda Fantz, the smiley faced beauty, is fun to watch, as is Heather Hersh, as the evil Penelope Pennywise.

Rob Albrecht, as Caldwell B. Cladwell, is a hoot as a cruel executive with a pet rabbit.

Music director David Keith Stiver and choreographer Pamela La Force help make this musical comedy what it is -- great.

The two dozen or so cast members can all sing. Their chorus numbers are the kind that have you begging for more.

Chagrin Valley Little Theatre may have gone out on a limb with "Urinetown, the Musical" by turning it into an off-the-wall musical comedy you won't soon forget.

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.

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