Theater Thursday- Urinetown

We received complimentary tickets to Urinetown for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed are our own.

What: Urinetown

Where: New York City Center

             130 W. 56th St.

             New York, NY 

Who: Recommended for Ages 12 and Up 

          (due to language and situations including implied violence)

When: Through February 16, 2025

 

Despite it's strange subject matter about a dystopian world in which there are no private toilets and one company is monopolizing the public toliets for their own selfish gains, Urinetown is many ways an extremely fun and amusing show. New York City Center's current production of the show is full of their usual crop of amazing performers. Among them are Jordan Fisher, Stephanie Styles, and Keala Settle. The cast also includes Rainn Wilson known for the U.S. version of the TV show, The Office. Although, Wilson has done theater before, it does not appear that he has done a musical before. While his acting is great, vocally he does not standout like many of the other performers in the cast. He doe, however, have an adequate enough voice to be a passable singer,

The show, on the whole, is good, but not necessarily up to the level of recent City Center Encore! productions. The voices are lovely. The choreography is fun. The song "Run Freedom Run" is a standout although there are other quite amusing choreographic moments as well. 

Despite this, it still feels like the show is missing something. For one thing, the role of Little Sally which is usually played by an adult is played by a child. This in itself is not a problem there are many talented child performers out there including ones who have previously graced the City Center stage. This particular child does not perform with much emotion so no matter what she is saying it sounds the same. This takes away from the character and all of her funny lines become flat. Since, Little Sally is such an important character, it takes a way from the show on the whole as well which is one reason, but not necessarily the only reason that this show is not one of Encores! best. 

 

And that's our view. For more information or to purchase tickets to Urinetown, visit www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2024-2025/urinetown.

Tune in Saturday for Still More Theater Saturday.

Photo credits:

All Urinetown production photos by Joan Marcus

Images used in this post have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms and are used by permission. If there is a problem with the rights to any image,  contact us here, and we will look into the matter.