Urinetown is part of the 2025 Encores! Series. This series of concert stagings revisits the archives of American musical theater.
In this side-splitting satire directed by Teddy Bergman (KPOP), a young hero played by Jordan Fisher (Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen) leads his community in a fight against oppression. Set in a dystopian world where water is scarce and “Hope” is even scarcer, all citizens must now pay a fee for “The Privilege to Pee” at one of the public facilities controlled by a selfish tycoon (Rainn Wilson of The Office) and monitored by authorities like Officer Lockstock (Taran Killam of Spamalot). But the citizens can only hold it in so much longer, and soon the poorest, filthiest of these facilities, run by the formidable Penelope Pennywise (Keala Settle of The Greatest Showman), becomes a “number one” site for major change.
With an incisive score by Tony winner Mark Hollmann, hilarious lyrics by Hollman and Tony winner Greg Kotis, and a plot with thrilling twists and turns, Urinetown is an “audacious and exhilarating” (The New York Times) take on the classic story of a ragtag group of underdogs coming together to try to oust a corrupt corporation. In this Tony-winning musical, nothing is safe from criticism — capitalism, politics, the establishment, the anti-establishment, and even musical theater itself!
Photos by Joan Marcus