Theatre Tulsa Opens 89th Season with URINETOWN, 9/16

Theatre Tulsa opens 89th Season with URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL, a show with a socially relevant theme.

Theatre Tulsa will perform the uproariously funny and socially relevant URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL. Opening night is September 16, 2011 in the Liddy Doenges theatre at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

The hottest Tulsa summer on record, a historic drought, the lack of trust in our political system and the rising cost of living are all subject matters satirized in this play, directed by Cathy Gervasio, a new director to Tulsa by way of Tempe, Arizona.

URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL was written in 1995 by Greg Kotis. After graduating from college, Kotis set off for Europe. He had extensively studiEd Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1832) an 18th century Anglican minister and philosopher who believed that Utopia was unattainable. Malthus reasoned that "Utopia" was impossible because our natural resources were unsustainable. Coincidentally, upon running out of money while traveling in Paris, Greg Kotis came to loath the public toilets. His experience was so miserable that he set out to write a musical that would be totally irreverent yet would serve to highlight the level of social irresponsibility he felt was happening at the time. Kotis wanted to express what he felt about politics, our unsustainable lifestyle and what the American Musical Theatre had become. He joined with Mark Hollmann and together they wrote the music and the lyrics in a manner that was so irreverent they felt the show could never be commercially produced. As a joke, Kotis gave the script to someone with the money to produce the musical and as it turned out URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL was a huge success!

Gervasio promises URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL will be a hilarious and modern satire on the subject of corruption, greed and revolution at a time when water is worth its weight in gold. URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL is a 2002 Tony Award winner and was inspired by the works of Bertoli Brecht and Kurt Weill. It is irreverently humorous and has invigorated the notion of what a musical should be. In 2001, URINETOWN-THE MUSICAL was nominated for ten (10) Tony Awards, winning three (3) including Best Musical Score and Best Book of a Musical. The play was nominated for the Theatre World Award and was nominated nine (9) times for the Drama Desk Award.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door and are available through the Theatre Tulsa office at (918) 587-8402 or by emailing info@theatretulsa.org. Group rates are available.

Theatre Tulsa is a 501(3)(c) non-profit community theatre established in 1922 and has the distinction of being the oldest community Theatre West of the Mississippi River. From representing the United States in the World Festival of Amateur Theatre in 1957 held in Monaco to special recognition at the Governor's Arts awards in 1981 to its most recent 2011 TATE Award, Theatre Tulsa continues to be a leader in the community in the presentation of theatre arts. For further information, contact Sally Barnes at (918) 587-8402 or www.theatretulsa.org.

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