URINETOWN at The Red Branch Theatre Co.

Urinetown: The Musical—as we are told by the show’s narrator, Officer Lockstock (later joined by his partner, Officer Barrel … I kid you not)—takes place “in a town like any other town you’d find in a musical.”

Well, not quite. Not unless the good people of River City or Brigadoon ever made it a capital offense to urinate anywhere but in the outrageously overpriced “public amenities” run by the corrupt Urine Good Company. (Get it?  It took me a while too.) Of course, when your town has been devastated by a decades-long drought, water conservation becomes an issue of no small importance.

From this … unique premise, the songwriting team of Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis have crafted a wicked satire.  The Broadway production of Urinetown, which opened in 2001, won 3 Tony Awards and ran for nearly 1,000 performances. Though I never saw it, if it was anything like the production currently running at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia, it must have been a heckuva show.

Although Kotis’s book lends itself to a broad performing style that at times induces more groans than laughs (the several puns I’ve already quoted are typical), for the most part director Jenny Male and her talented cast find just the right balance between the silliness on the surface and the deeper themes of sustainability and social injustice. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the performances of the two leads, Sam Ludwig and Erin Donovan.

Ludwig plays Bobby Strong—a menial worker turned revolutionary—as though he’d been ripped from the pages of a comic book, with a superhero swagger and an all-American grin. Ludwig’s physical choices are so precise—every puffed-up gesture, every disarming wink—that at times he reminded me of a young Jim Carrey.

If it is Ludwig’s job to parody the hero, the role of the ingénue falls to Donovan, and she delivers in every respect. Romantic to a fault and impossibly bright-eyed (her character is named Hope, for goodness sake), Donovan nevertheless finds room to add some chilling touches.

You see, beneath Hope’s lovely veneer is an empty-headed girl who, despite attending “the most expensive university in the world,” has learned nothing more sophisticated than “follow your heart.” (Well, she’s also learned that “kidnapping people is wrong.”) Thus when Hope’s heart leads her to commit horrible crimes in the name of freedom and equality, Donovan makes the sudden turn seem inevitable.

Both Ludwig and Donovan have powerful, expressive voices—the only real disappointment is that Hollmann and Kotis didn’t give their romantic leads more duets.

For the rest of the company, where to begin? As Officer Lockstock, David Frankenberger, Jr., proves a tremendously gifted physical comedian (especially when running in slow motion). He gives the crooked cop a tinge of an Irish brogue, and the effect is very charming—the perfect voice in which to narrate this strange tale.

Lockstock spends a great deal of his time with a sassy street urchin named Little Sally (played in pigtails by the grown-up Janelle Broderick). The two of them trade meta-theatrical jokes about musicals long after the device has grown tiresome, but Frankenberger and Broderick milk as many laughs from the material as they can.

Jeffrey Davis is a hoot as the villainous Caldwell B. Cladwell, president of Urine Good Company (and Hope’s father), a man whose moral compass divides the world into hunters and bunnies. This is all explained in the show’s funniest song, “Don’t Be the Bunny.” (While we’re on the subject, Tim Grieb gives a totally fearless performance as the bunny.)

In the role of Ms. Pennywise—the martinet who runs Public Amenity No. 9 (and with whom Cladwell and Hope share a secret past)—Sara Cobb is appropriately world-weary, though I couldn’t always hear her when she sang. This is partly because, as far as I could tell, the actors in this production are not miked. While I applaud Drama Learning Center for resisting the contemporary trend toward plastering microphones on a singer’s forehead like some high-tech wart, the unfortunate consequence is that the musicians in the pit sometimes drown out the performers.

That said, the band—led by artistic director Aaron Broderick on the keyboard—is quite good. Since there are only four musicians, the sound at times is a bit thin, though given the relative simplicity of Hollmann’s score, this is a fairly minor concern, and the presence of two percussionists (Pat Klink and Dane Krich) helps greatly. (WRITER'S CORRECTION: In fact, Klink and Krich alternate shows, so that for any given performance, there are only three musicians in the band.)

With the slight exception of a crowded riot sequence near the end of the show, director Male moves her large cast efficiently around the set (a utilitarian collection of platforms and stairways designed by Dan Van Why). Eric Moore’s lighting design contrasts vibrant flashes of color with a tranquil blue backdrop, a subtle reminder of the cool, clean water so conspicuously absent from Urinetown. Kym Craig’s costumes are an eclectic mix of the debonair and the downtrodden.

A running gag throughout the show is the question of why anyone would want to see a musical called Urinetown. This terrifically entertaining production is the answer.

Urinetown is playing at the Drama Learning Center, located at 9130-I Red Branch Road in Columbia, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM, through May 9^th. Tickets are $14-$18. For more information, visit www.dramalearningcenter.com or call 410-997-9352.

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