BWW Reviews: You're in Good Company with URINETOWN at Hale Center Theater Orem
"I run the only toilet in this part of town," the heartless latrine manager sings out. "You come here and pay a fee, for the privilege ... to pee."
Hale Center Theater Orem's hysterical Urinetown is a privilege ... to see.
Stellar direction by the richly inventive Dave Tinney and zesty performances make the show bladder-bursting bliss. With a whiz of joke after joke, Urinetown is the funniest musical in liters of laughs and sparkles as brightly as polished porcelain.
The story centers on the banning of all private toilets following a decades-long drought. What Obamacare will do to medical care, the monopolistic Urine Good Company has done to public amenities.
Urinal fee hikes are enacted by the dastardly mega-corporation CEO, Caldwell B. Cladwell (Chris H. Brower). When Caldwell's starry-eyed daughter Hope (Kelly Coombs Johnson) falls in love with revolutionary Bobby Strong (Chase Ramsey), the stage is set for a showdown between the oppressed poor and the corporate goons.
The appealing Johnson and the zippy Ramsey display vocal prowess and fine comic acting skills. They are bundle of droll enthusiasm in "Follow Your Heart." Taylor Eliason also makes a strong impression as Officer Lockstock, the narrator. His wisecracks and amusing asides are designed to keep things light, with his frequent companion Officer Barrel (Andrew Robertson) capably assisting him.
Cladwell is played with superb comic villainy by Brower, who is horrifyingly funny in "Don't Be the Bunny," about the importance of staying on the top of the capitalist food chain. Amber Dodge as Little Sally deadpans some of the show's most hilarious lines.
The witty and authoritative delivery of "It's a Privilege to Pee" reminds why Marcie Jacobsen is excellent in every role. Daniel Fenton Anderson is all befuddled amusement as Senator Fipp.
The supporting cast is a golden shower of bubbly talent, especially in the Act 2 showstopper, "Run, Freedom, Run!" Each ensemble member is in on the zesty humor.
Bobby Swenson's rusting, post-industrial stage design works hand in glove with Maryann Hill's dazzlingly drab Depression-meets-steampunk costumes.
Urinetown is charmingly audacious, preposterously wacky, and wet-your-pants funny.
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