BLOG: Portland’s Sewer Commissioner (Me) Visits “Urinetown”
Sam Adams
The United Nations declared 2005-2015 as the decade of “Water for Life.”
Although planet earth is 75% water, only 1% of it is drinkable – and that is disappearing fast.
That bottled water you drink? If it comes from an aquifer, you could be drinking water from the Ice
Age that is not be replenished with a good rain.
“Urinetown, The Musical” is comedy about a town so short on water that people have to pay to urinate.
Fed up with the greedy corporations that run the city’s “public amenities” (public bathrooms) and corrupt politicians, the good citizens’ revolt.
That the cast, musicians and crew cover these weighty topics while making the audience laugh with them is testament to their considerable talents.
This is a great play.
The fact that the play is being staged in the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center to a sold out audience (yes, thanks to the good work of Adrienne Flagg, IFCC's great interim director, and Jesse Beason on my staff and a group of committed citizens we have saved IFCC), shows why IFCC is worth saving.
Of the play, The Oregonian wrote, “For those of you who haven't noticed, here's a news flash: The
Portland theater scene is changing rapidly, and for the better… Stumptown Stages, whose premiere production of the plucky musical with the unfortunate name, "Urinetown," suggests impressive things to come.”
“Director Kirk Mouser -- who co-founded Stumptown with his old friend, Sunset High School drama teacher and choreographer Gary Wayne Cash -- has returned from 20 years of acting and directing in New York, including featured roles in big-name musicals, to bring Manhattan-style energy and professionalism to his hometown stage.
“Working with a talented, exuberant cast, Mouser manages to make the play hum on every level, moving it along briskly without overemphasizing or ignoring the seriousness below the humor. Cash's choreography is lively and well-integrated, and the intimate confines of the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center's theater return the show from the bigness of Broadway, where it won three Tonys in 2002, to its grittier fringe festival roots.
“Among the show's particular delights are:
“The surprisingly mature performance and arresting voice of 17-year-old Joy Fischer as Hope, the pure-hearted daughter of evil CEO Caldwell B. Cladwell (Corey Brunish), whose corporation Urine Good Hands controls all of the city's "facilities."
“Lori Paschall's commanding singing and earthy portrayal of a hoodwinked functionary in the
too-small role of Penelope Pennywise.
“Wade Willis' mugging, square-jawed parody of the tough-talking policeman, Officer Lockstock, who narrates the show.
“Courtney Freed is appropriately puckish as the precocious Little Sally, too, and Brian Bartley is an entertaining complement to Fischer as rebellion leader Bobby Strong, the Romeo to Hope's Juliet…”
Book tickets for "Urinetown" at: http://www.stumptownstages.com/ticketinformation.html
Posted by Sam Adams on November 26, 2005
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Comments by site visitors
Excellent theater company...great show. Go Kirk!!!!!
Cheers,
Jason Ogan
Posted by: Jason Ogan | Mar 29, 2006 10:29:10 AM
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This IS a great show! Thanks, Sam, for your leadership and the good work of your staff team to save IFCC.
Posted by: Tim Johnson | Dec 3, 2005 9:58:52 AM